September 30, 2004

On the surface, the killing of the children (if indeed it actually happened!) was merely a mistake.

Or was it?

Could this have been yet another example of US soldiers using Iraqi civilians as human shields?

How convenient that the US Army had a supply of lollies to hand out to a large crowd of Iraqi children at the precise moment the fascist invaders were coming under attack from freedom fighters. [note to readers: by freedom fighters the author means Zarqawi's Tawid and Jihad group which claimed repsonsibility today of the bombing that killed 34 children in Baghdad. You may also know this freedom fighters from such beheadings as Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong]

And how convenient the US just happened to be having a 'ribbon cutting ceremony' to open a water treatment plant when it is well know that water treatment plants are regular targets of the insurgency.

Could the kids have been set up as part of some macabre publicity stunt by the Bush-Blair-Howard axis of evil on election eve?

Could the kids have been set up as part of some macabre publicity stunt by the Bush-Blair-Howard axis of evil on election eve?

In any case, how many children died in Iraq as a result of the US led Food for Oil Programme and Baby Killing Sanctions?

Millions!

Nor should anything remarkable be made of the fact that the insurgency - the future government of Iraq - has taken 'hostage' women from a Muslim country. [quotes around hostage are in the original]

Indonesia, in its transition to a new government, should be given a timely reminder of where its allegiance should lie.

With the struggling masses of Iraq? Or will the ultra-rightist Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono - a war criminal who struggled against East Timorese independence - now side with Howard?

The capture of two Indonesian women collaborators may help clear up any doubts he may still hold.

The left must not resile from its support for the Iraqi Resistance.

The reasons are clearâ?¦.

Interviewer: "Do you think the anti-war movement should be supporting Iraq's anti-occupation resistance?

John Pilger: "Yes, I do. We cannot afford to be choosy. While we abhor and condemn the continuing loss of innocent life in Iraq, we have no choice now but to support the resistance, for if the resistance fails, the "Bush gang" will attack another country. If they succeed, a grievous blow will be suffered by the Bush gang. ..."

WE abhor and condemn the continuing loss of innocent life in Iraq - yet what do the imperialist aggresors do? It is clear

".....I have walked the city's streets, along a road blown to pieces by a US missile. The casualties were children, of course, because children are everywhere........."

I was in class. That's right, I teach a night class. Biggest TV event of the year and I'm teaching class!! I mean, this is bigger than the new season of Chappelle and here I am stuck talking about a debate that I haven't even seen yet. Life sucks sometimes.

I never thought I'd see the day when a college professor would stoop to the level of forging documents just to get his guy elected. On the other hand, if Bush does equal Hitler it makes perfect sense. It's the old paradox: if you could go back in time and kill Hitler when he was a painter in Vienna, should you? Yes.

Afghan soldiers beheaded by Taliban. It's in there. One sentence. Way down in the article. In an unrelated incident, on Sept. 20th a taxi carrying three Afghan soldiers were stopped by some Taliban fighters. The soldiers were then beheaded. Also buried in this report.

UPDATE: Both reports may be referring to the same incident. MORE HERE.

Two Lebanese have been kidnapped along with a group of others that included women," a senior Iraqi Interior Ministry official said, adding that "an intelligence team has begun looking into it and trying to find them."

The same group claimed responsibility for kidnapping two French journalists last month. The Frenchmen, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, disappeared on Aug. 20, along with their Syrian driver, on the way to the southern Iraqi city of Najaf.

What was it that the moderate voice of Omar Bakri Mohammed recently demanded? Oh, yeah "Recognition that the mujahadin [in Iraq] are freedom fighters fighting for a just cause." Just freedom fighters, right. Just like Washington. I remember well the story of Washington opening fire on a regiment of Hessian regulars as they passed out candy to little Tory children....You might even say the story of those events are seared in my mind.

I'm about to give a test to my Public Administration class. I just reallized that the room I use has a computer and broadband. Usually I sit around and read a book during tests, today I'm going to live blog the test. Come back and experience the fear and loathing that is a midterm exam at a small regional public university in an upper level class. What strange sounds will be heard coming out of students' clenched teeth? Will the air conditioning mask the nervous sweat dripping off their forehads and soaking their clothes? Which student will be first to finish: Student A, the over-achieving poli-sci major with law school aspirations; or Student B, the football playing PE major who needed a Social Science elective and had an advisor who had not yet learned of Dr. Rusty Shackleford's reputation? All this and more to be revealed in the world's first test live blog! Test begins at 12:10 EDT. Be there or risk the ever dreadful MAKE-UP TEST BLOG POST!

12:15: Handed out tests. It turns out that the upper division poli sci class before mine also had a test today. Students pissed that they had to study for two tests on the same day. I feel for them, I just don't care. Also, the Prof. caught someone cheating. How does one cheat on an essay exam with blue books handed out by the Prof?? Don't know. I'm on heightened security alert. Code Orange!

Live blogging continues below.

12:20: Why is it that some students think they ought to shout out all their questions, even during a test? Yes, that should read a) b) c) d), not a) c) b) d)!!!

12:25:In every class there is a smart ass who thinks they have an in with the teacher. They think that being a smart ass is cute, and that I find them funny. I don't. During a test the smart ass invariably reads each question, looks at the Prof, and then gets some kind of look on their face. If the question is hard, they grimace. If there is something funny in the question, they laugh out loud and shake their heads. Man, just take the test already!!!

12:30: My money is on the overachiever finishing first. Since an essay question is involved, overachievers usually can pound those out pretty fast. Slackers tend to finish Scantron tests earlier--the choose 'c' when in doubt method of test-taking applies here. The test I gave out has 25 multiple choice questions, but the rest are short answer and essay. Note on live-blogging from class: make sure your keyboard is reasonably quiet. The one in this room is pretty loud.

12:35: Just made the proctoring rounds. One student gives me the thumbs up and whispers "good test". By good I take it to mean easy.

12:40: Four students finished. Too quick. Test must be too easy. Either that, or they failed miserably. I doubt that, though. Three of four early finishers are women. My experience is that women are better test takers, smarter, and usually harder working than their male counterparts. We'll see.

12:42 Here are the bonus question. Yeah, bonus questions are a cop-out, but hey, they're usually fun and often relevenat:

1) Who is the Attorney General?
2)Who is the Sec State?
3) Who is the Sec Defense?
4? Who is Mr. Burns' executive assistant? (Yes, that Mr. Burns)
5) Who is the Principal of South Park Elementary?

12:45: Did you get all the bonus q's right? The way I rationalize this is they are all famous Public Administrators.

12:46: One very pissed off student just left the room. Seriously. And it was my smart-ass!!

12:48: The herd is thinning. As seats begin to empty you can see theh looks on students' faces more clearly. Some are intnse, others are perfect poker-players. One of them looks kind of confused, he fiddles with his pen. Banging the pen on hand. Pen against forehead. In mouth. Clicking on teeth. Are the qeustions really that hard?

12:51: Every large class has the flirter. The girl who has used her looks to get through life. Flirters are usually super-sweet, but they can get annoying after awhile. Take the flirter in this class. Nice girl, moderately smart. But do they really believe their flirtation will help their grade? Not on my watch, baby!! She keeps looking up, trying to make eye-contact. Nope. Not falling for it. Rusty is taken.

12:55: Last two students getting up, same time. Test over already? Wow, that went fast. Do I go downstairs, back to my office? If I do that the inevitable will happen. A student will show up in the next half an hour asking if the test is graded. Relax. Rusty has other things going on in his life--like blogging! Then they will ask when the tests will be ready. Not yet, geeze.

12:57: You have just been a part of the world's first live-blogging of a midterm exam. Hope you weren't disappointed. Many years from now, as you eek off a meeger existence from the defunct Social Security system, you may tell your grandchildren, as you share your meager portion of Cat Chow, how you were there the day history was made. You were there, the day Rusty Shackleford went where no other blogger had dared to go. Oh, the triumph!!

Ok, but seriously, the test did go a lot faster than normal. I just hope this doesn't inspire other ludicrous live-blogging events. For instance, live-blogging your intimate encounters--not a good idea. This goes double if your name happens to be Andrew Sullivan.

Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, called by the jerkoffs at MSNBC a 'moderate', is exposed by Allah. And since MSNBC ripped me off I'm not in the most forgiving of moods towards them either. But notice how Allah's post exposes the conclusion first, find evidence to support the conclusion last methodology of the mainstream media. "I went to Columbia, I must be a qualified policy analyst!" Also, have you ever met a radical who admitted they were a radical? It's not so much that people lie when you ask them where they are on any scale as much as it is that we all tend to think of ourselves in the middle of the measurment scale. This is why Kos, or the left-wingers over at Media Matters (like Kool Aid Man) can get away with calling the MSM right-wing. When you have seats on the ten yard line, but think you're on the 50, the whole game seems to be played different. The same thing applies to religion. [Note to Allah: It's My young Paduan learner, biyaatch!]

Speaking of MSNBC and KY Jelly, I hear Imus is a moderate.....[via Pimp Aylward]. As long as we're harping on the MSM, why not go read Iowahawk's new piece? It's funny because it's Dan Rather true. And speaking of the MSM, it looks like Philip Shenon, a reporter from the most moderate of all MSM outlets (the New York Times), decided to warn a moderate Muslim charity that the FBI was about to raid the altruistic charity's headquarters. Now the fascist Department of Justice, headed by well-known right-wing Christian fundamentalist and non-moderate John Ashcroft, is going to indict his moderate ass.

Now, back to the issue at hand: Muslim moderates. Remember all those moderates that Bush-Hitler decided to let out of Gitmo after he caved to the cult of international law? You might recall that the Pakis iced one of them after he rejoined the Taliban. Well, it looks like another of those moderates decided that the way he would spread his moderation would be to join the Chechens in their great and moderate cause of raping and killing children while they drive the evil Russian Crusader forces off the sacred soil of Islam. The only hitch in Slimane Hadj Abderrahmane moderate plan is that he's a citizen of Denmark and the Danes, being the right-wing Scandinavian fascists that they are, are considering locking him up again. Note to Danish left: Crown Prince Frederik=Hitler.

A couple bright spot today. First, it looks like Iran is on the verge of a moderate revolution. This time the word moderate actually means what I think it means, you know not-radical. Roger L. Simon tipped me off to this news from Activist Chat. I know many in the State Department like to call the current regime in Iran a moderate one, but I for one have this old fashioned belief that if you support terrorists who like to blow up the very recently circumcised that this is an indication that you are slightly outside the realm of moderation. Good luck to the students and other revolutionaries fighting on the streets of Persia today. Let's send out some prayers or Karma or whatever my readers are into to help the revolutionaries keep their groove on. Me? I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Second, Jane of Armies of Liberation has another editorial printed in the Arab News. The interesting thing about the Arab News is that it is the official propaganda arm of the Saudi government aimed at Western audiences. It has long been a bastion of moderate anti-Semetism and moderate Bush-Hitlerism. However, since al Qaeda began making good on their threats to take down the moderate Saudi regime, the Arab News has in fact begun to moderate. Let's just say the Saudis are becoming more moderate than their previous level of middle-of-the-roadness. Good job Jane.

I support moderate Muslim regimes before I didn't support them. No, the Yemenis aren't what you would normally call moderate. Call me a hypocrite, the word might actually apply in this case, but I'm all for non-moderate regimes killing other Muslims that are an inch less moderate than they are. Two ever so unmoderate terrorists have been sentenced to death in Yemen for their part in the USS Cole bombing. I'll go with Sharia option B: stoning. Unrelated question. When they execute someone by firing squad they usually hand out one rifle with a blank in it so that squad members can live with themselves by imagining they were the one who shot the blank. Do moderate Muslims hand out something like that to the stoning mob? I dunno, maybe one of those faux rocks you buy at a gag-store?

You ever wonder what moderates Muslims teach their children? Below [in extended entry] is a family photo I got from a moderate Muslim website. Ah, the family that slays together stays together. I believe the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way toward the moderate Islamic state.

I'm off to class to give a moderately easy test to my Public Administration class. Of course, all tests seem easy when you know the answer. E-mail me if anything moderately interesting happens while I'm in class.

September 29, 2004

Two reports due to the Dean today. 50+ tests graded. One test still needs to be written. You think taking a test sucks? Try writing one. Oh Scantron, Scantron. Where art though oh Scantron!! As you noticed, blogging was light. Now you know why.

UPDATE 10/08: Kenneth Bigley executed in Iraq by Zarqawi terrorist organization. The story is developing, but sources in Fallujah claim Bigley beheaded. For the latest information, links to video, and images on the Kenneth Bigley murder please go to the MAIN PAGE or by CLICKING HERE for the 10/08 report.

For the latest information, links to video, and images on hostages in Iraq please check the main page by CLICKING HERE.

Here is a list of all the victims of Islamic Beheadings since late July this year.

UPDATE: Scroll down for update. Al Jazeera, the virulently anti-Western satellite television network, has aired a new tape of British Hostage Kenneth Bigley pleading for his life. Images from the tape are posted below. The video can be found at Global Terror Alert or by clicking this link. The new video is obvious propaganda intended to sway public sentiment in the UK against the ongoing coalition effort in Iraq. In it, al Jazeera quotes Bigley as saying

"Tony Blair is a liar - he doesn't care about me. I am just one person. My captors don't want to kill me."

Further:

According to Aljazeera, Bigley also accused Blair of not conducting any negotiations to free him, and urged the prime minister to work to release Iraqi women prisoners to save his life.

Understandably, Bigley and his family want everything done possible to keep him alive. Kenneth Bigley's mother and brother, though, have been doing the work of the terrorists for them--trying to lay the blame for Bigley predicament on Tony Blair. I am happy that Kenneth Bigley is still alive, but by negotiating with terrorists we legitimate their actions. Caving to terrorists can only lead to more hostages being taken and more beheadings

UPDATE: I have seen the video. In addition to what I've written above, Bigley asks the British government to negotiate. The French did, why not the British? He say's:

Mr. Blair says he will not negotiate with terrorists. The French have negotiated with these people to release hostages. I'm begging you. I'm begging you to speak and push Blair (raises voice), push Blair to help me."

The terrorists also watch the BBC. They are passing messages to Bigley that his mother is sick in the hospital and he pleads for the Brits to have compassion on his mother by working for his release.

These terrorists are even more sophisticated than I thought. They know exactly how to manipulate Westerners. Please do not be manipulated. Chin up. Do not negotiate with the terrorists. If you do, Bigley may be saved--but countless others may die.

An image from My Pet Jawa was shown on MSNBC last night. The image was from a story I broke on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's website being hacked on 9/22 (story here). The image can be found below, in the extended entry. Despite my best efforts to get mainstream media outlets to run the story, none did. However, a number of bloggers took up the call to arms and the news slowly got out. I received hundreds of e-mails asking for Zarqawi's website address from that original post and it's follow up. The image I grabbed from Zarqawi's website also was reposted on dozens of other blogger's websites.

Yesterday, Zarqawi's website was hacked again (story here). That news was broken by Chad Evans at In the Bullpen (story here). Luckily, Chad grabbed an image from the website before the webhost fixed the problem. Both hacks were done by a group calling themselves "TeAmZ USA", their website is here.

Last night I was flipping through the news networks and tuned in to MSNBC for a few minutes. They also picked up the story. They ran three images as background, all from the internet. One of them I didn't recognize, one of them was a screenshot saved by Global Terror Alert (the URL was embedded on the image, thus showing the MSNBC producer had simply grabbed it from the internet), and the last made me jump out of bed. It was the screenshot I had saved from the original hack job done by TeAmZ USA on August 22 (see below for image)!!! The hack job that I actually e-mailed a number of "legitimate news outlets" about. The hack job that not a single mainstream media source had announced.

Interesting enough, the broadcaster on MSNBC described the penguin image left by TeAmZ USA in their hack yesterday (image here) but didn't actually show a picture of it. This leads me to conclude that the producer of the story read the Reuters story, which also describes the penguin image, and then did a quick internet search. Interestingly enough, if you do a Google search for "Zarqawi website hacked" my original story is number three. The first two search returns are to other bloggers (Jeff Quinton and Chris Short) who essentially repost the story and link back to me. In fact, every single search return from the front page is a link to a reposting of my original story or to the image I grabbed. Hence, the only images the "real journalists" could find were ones from old hack jobs. The journalists covering this story had not actually broken any news. They were simply repeating what other news sources said, which was ultimatly just a rehashing of a blogger's post.

Again, bloggers and Freepers break and disseminate a news story. The mainstream press picks up on the story. This time, though, bloggers get zero credit for their footwork. Amazing.

UPDATE:Chad says no one from any MSM outlet contacted him about the story he broke. None contacted me about my earlier post either. Notice this from the Reuters story:

"Host them and your next!" was the message left on the site by the hackers, calling themselves TeAmZ USA, who have already attacked several Islamist and pro-al Qaeda Web sites.

Since no MSM ever carried a news report about TeAmZ USA's hacking jobs how did the reporter know of their prior activities? I can only assume they got their "back story" by reading blog reports or the Free Republic website.

Omar Bakri Mohammed was interviewed on a British radio program yesterday. Jon of Gam Blog UK has the transcripts. In it he rationalizes terrorism, insists that fighting against the UK in Iraq is just, and backs away from earlier statements he had made threatening the lives of two British Muslim envoys who are in Iraq trying to secure the release of Kenneth Bigley.

Who is Omar Bakri Mohammed? He is the spiritual leader of the extremist sect al-Muhajiroun in Great Brittain. Here are some quotes by Omar Bakri Mohammed, you guess if the extremist sect I'm talking about is a radical offshoot of the Methodists. Speaking of attacks against British soldiers in Iraq:

"If an Iraqi Muslim carried out an attack like that in Britain, it would be justified because Britain has carried out acts of terrorism in Iraq."

And speaking of who is "really behind" the attrocities in Beslan Russia:

"The Mujahideen [Chechen rebels] would not have wanted to kill those people, because it is strictly forbidden as a Muslim to deliberately kill women and children. It is the fault of the Russians"

Right. Religion of peace and all that. Omar Bakri Mohammed is most well known for the conference he organized on 9/11--to celebrate it!!

Italian hostages Simona Pari and Simona Torretta have been released (original story on their abduction here). Two groups had claimed to have killed them last week. One claimed they were beheaded. I had speculated that they were both probably dead. I'm glad I was wrong. Just yesterday King Abdullah of Jordan said he knew they were alive. I look forward to hearing from them about their ordeal. The two were apparantly released for a $1 million dollar ransom. Reuters:

Two female Italian hostages seized in Baghdad three weeks ago were freed on Tuesday and are safe, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said.

The two aid workers, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both aged 29, were taken at gun-point from their central Baghdad offices on Sept. 7, in a brazen kidnapping which caused jitters among the thousands of foreigners working in Iraq....

There had been little word on the fate of the Italians since their abduction, along with two Iraqi colleagues, although Al-Rai al-Aam, a leading Kuwait daily, reported the kidnappers had agreed to their release in exchange for a $1 million ransom.

I was over reading a post at Blogs of War when I realized that I could swear in at least three languages, but not Arabic! Man, I have been missing out on so much!! *slaps forehead*

How does one decipher a message from a reader calling you ya manache'h without this knowledge? Or, what if you need to pass along a super secret message to your Arab readers about that koos gahba ahbe Wonkette? And if the Chappelle show ever gets syndicated on al Jazeera, you'll definitely need to know what Rick James means when he calls you a kelbeh.

Here is a useful guide for troops about to deploy to Iraq. Might come in useful when some smiling local kanith calls you kwanii right before lobbing a grenade in your direction. Also, when a local barboog asks you, "Aiyz temus?", remember that the going rate is $5-$10 depending on how the sharmoota answers this question, "Bit tifi wela bit tibla'ee?"

After several comments by reader qatadha on how Islam is peaceful, and how Allah is full of love, he finally drops some Quranic versus on just how Allah wants Muslims to show their "compassion" and "love" on the unbelievers. Serious, he uses these versus to make the point that Islam is being misrepresented, is really about peace and love, is the only true religion, and why Muslims are justified in repelling the imperialist crusader forces. Emphasis mine.

And let not those who disbelieve suppose that they can overcome. Lo!
they cannot escape. Make ready for them all you can by armed
force...(Quran; Surah 8:59-60a)

...slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captive,
and besiege them, and prepare to ambush them. But if they repent and
establish [Islamic] worship...their way is free. Lo! Allah is forgiving and
Merciful. (Quran; Surah 9:5)

...Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites! Be harsh with
them...(Quran; Surah 9:73)

JQuinton has the story. My thoughts on this are mixed. It's been awhile since I lived in Russia, but there was a pretty consistent theme among the population when I was there: blame the Chechens. And I don't mean blame them for all acts of terrorism, which is probably a pretty fair assumption to make in Russia, but I mean blame them for everything. It was pretty much agreed upon by everyone I talked to that Chechens were responsible for much of the criminal enterprises in the Moscow region. Another thought is that the Moscow police aren't the most professional organization in the world and don't hesitate to beat confessions out of prisoners--especially prisoners who have, shall we say, 'darker skin'? I'm not going to say I'm skeptical about the arrests--rather, we'll call it a healthy neutrality until all the facts come to light.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's website has been hacked again and My Pet Jawa may be partially to blame. I broke the original story that Zarqawi's original site was hacked by 'TeAmZ USA' on Aug. 22. Later, the website was restored to service before the webhost, a company operating out of Houston, took the website down permanently. However, Zarqawi's group kept a backup site on the same server which eventually became the group's main propaganda arm. That site, until this morning, was used to distribute beheading videos, recruitment messages, issue fatwas and other propaganda. Recently, the site has been used to distribute a taped message by British hostage Kenneth Bigley pleading for his life.

Today, Chad Evans of In the Bullpen discovered that Zarqawi's website had been hacked again by the same group who had taken the site down in August. An image of the message left by TeAmZ USA at Zarqawi's website can be found here, at Chad's original post, or in the extended entry below.

In my two earlier reports (here and here) on Zarqawi's website, My Pet Jawa offered to give out the URL for the Tawid and Jihad website to any entrepreneurial hacker who could take it down. In response to those posts, hundreds of anonymous e-mails were recieved asking for Zarqawi's web address. Some of the anonymous e-mailers claimed to want the address "for research purposes", some for their own benefit, and others simply put a "wink, wink" as their reason. For the most part, I responded by giving my readers Zarqawi's website URL.

Recently, though, I discontinued the practice of giving out his URL. My decision was based on two factors. First, the volume of requests. I could no longer respond to individual e-mails requesting Zarqawi's website address. Second, and more important, I received an e-mail message from a reader who was outraged by what he saw on the Zarqawi website. In fact, he was so outraged that he decided to give the webhost a call and complain.

Eventually, the company responded and said that they were aware of Zarqawi's website on their host and had had numerous complaints. But they reassured my reader with this cryptic message, that "people at the highest level had asked them to keep the website up." I, and my reader, took that to mean that intelligence services were using the website to track down Zarqawi's physical location, something a number of commenters and fellow bloggers (see trackbacks to my original post) warned me of.

In related news, a number of suspected Zarqawi hideouts have been bombed in the last few days, including one this morning. Pure speculation, but could Zarqawi be dead and that is the reason the site is down--no longer needed? The last time TeAmZ USA hacked Zarqawi's website it was back up within a few days. I suspect that if the site comes back online then that would be evidence that the intelligence community does not believe they got Zarqawi. If it stays off, that might be a sign that Zarqawi is dead. Zarqawi's death would be very good news. Unlike al Qaeda, which the Tawid and Jihad terrorist organization has links to, Zarqawi's group is run from the top. In fact, it is likely that Zarqawi personally beheaded Eugene Armstrong, Jack Hensley, and Nick Berg. Keep fingers crossed.

UPDATE: Since the website it back up, I take it that Zarqawi is still alive. Sad, sad news.

September 27, 2004

"....we threaten the government of Denmark with the commencement of military strikes with utmost fatal ferocity if it does not declare a timetable for its withdrawal from Iraq. The government of Denmark should benefit from the Italian lesson, and the Russian lesson, and the British lesson, and the American lesson, because we will not show mercy to any Danish citizen who falls into our hands unless the Danish nation submit to our demands.”

News reports indicate that Mt. Saint Helens has started to erupt. I have been posting about this for days, not really believing it would happen. Well, I was wrong! My previous post has been updated daily and is located here. For your convenience, I have reposted it in the extended entry below. Thanks for Digger for notifying me. He's also on the case. UPDATES BELOW

Whoa!! Check out that pic above from Fox News. Awesome! And by awesome I mean I am truly awestruck by the pics, not Spicolli awesome. The pic below is from the Seattle Post Inetlligencer via M.H. King. It's from earlier and only shows the steam

Click here for live video provided by KGW-TV/DT Portland & KING-TV/DT Seattle. You'll have to sit through a commercial before the video starts, but give it a second (link also via M.H. King).

Duane the Forester is pretty close to the volcano and he's liveblogging it. If you can't wait, he reports "At 40 miles away I didn't feel anything rumbling, sorry but this is one of those cases where MSM has an advantage. The ash is headed my way, however so if we get ashfall here I'll photoblog the event."

KGW-TV/DT Portland reports that there were three large bursts, than the eruuption tapered off. No lava in site. Ash and steam from the eruption have caused several flights to be cancelled out of Portland and Seattle.

UPDATE 4:30 EDT: Watching USGS press conference. Eruption at 12:03 PST--lasted 24 minutes, plume went to 10,000 ft. They report no lava flow. Some glacier melt being detected and elevated waterflow. No mudslides detected. The USGS guy says that there have been half a dozen of these types of eruptions since the last big one. The difference between this eruption and those other small eruptions is that the seismic activity was way larger this time. In fact, the seismic action (those are earthquakes folks) this time is GREATER than the big blow. However, experts still don't expect as large an eruption this time. Yeah, this is the inner geek coming out in me.

New favorite quote from Duane who is liveblogging this thing from ground zero: "John Kerry calls it the "wrong eruption at the wrong place at the wrong time"

One expert is now claiming that he is noticing mud flow coming down the mountain.

10/02 UPDATE: Some experts saying they expect another eruption shortly.

John Little is also covering this and has some good resources linked in this post which he has been updating. Rob at Say Anything also covering with some cool pics. Daily Recycler has some online news footage, but the link to the live feed above is to a Portland station live covering it and they have some excellent close-up footage. Crazy Gator also has some wicked cool pics. Brian B. is blogging from Eugene and says he might get some of the ash. James Joyner finds an updated story on my earlier report of the morons flocking to Mount St. Helens as tourists.

"We have had small swarm of earthquakes that begun last Thursday and are worried that a small explosion may occur without warning," said Peter Frenzen, a scientist from Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.

"The earthquake activity is occurring below the dome -- all this could increase the likelihood of small rock slides from the lava dome," he said, adding that the mountain had not been hit by waves of quakes since 2001.

Trails up the mountain were closed to climbers and hikers after quakes measuring between two and to 2.8 on the Richter Scale shook the area amid fears of mud and rock slides over an eight kilometer (five mile) area around the peak.

The area north of the peak was hard hit in the 1980 eruption of Mount St Helens that left 57 people dead, devastating hundreds of square kilometers (miles) and spewing ash over much of the Pacific Northwest region.

The mountain's top lies around 88 kilometers (55 miles) northeast of the Oregon's main city of Portland, which was also covered in a thick layer of ash in the 1980 eruption.

Irony is using a word for purposes other than its literal meaning in such a way that it perverts its literal use. An oxymoron is when a phrase contains two words used in compliment to one another when their inherent definitions makes them incompatible. This is neither an "irony" nor is it an "oxymoron", but it's something pretty darn close. How about calling it a "oxymirony"?

I wish it were a joke. I've been writing abou this for a few weeks now. I hate to put "porn" and "beheading" in the same post, but that is the actual headline of the story. MORE HERE. This is one sick culture.

Chad sent me this link. What can I say? I had to post on it. But, I have to admit, Kerry does sound an awful lot like 3PO

THREEPIO: We'll be destroyed for sure. This is madness!
We're doomed!
Secret mission? What plans? What are you talking about? I'm not getting in there!
Are you sure this things safe?
How did I get into this mess? I really don't know how.
No more adventures. I'm not going that way.
That malfunctioning little twerp. This is all his fault! He tricked me into going this way, but he'll do no better.
I'm only a droid and not very knowledgeable about such things. Not on this planet, anyways. As a matter of fact, I'm not even sure which planet I'm on.
I told him not to go, but he's faulty, malfunctioning; kept babbling on about his mission.[MORE]

Ayman al-Zawahri caught say multiple news sources. Other sources deny that one of the four high-level al Qaeda suspects caught today was Ayman al-Zawahri. It was the "Army of Ansar al-Zawahri", a group which pledges it's support to al Qaeda's #2 man, which announced several days ago that they had beheaded Italian hostages Simona Pari and Simona Torretta. If true, excellent news. If not, at least we got four more bad guys. But I wll remind you that the war on terror does not end with capturing bad guys. We fight a fascist ideology which seeks global domination. Ideologies are far more difficult to fight than terrrorists.

"The pitiless and merciless war that has been forced upon us by external Jewry will lay the entire Continent in ruins..." Adolph Hitler March 20, 1943.

Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara at the UN today:

Syria on Monday accused Israel of inciting the United States to invade Iraq to distract attention from its own actions in the region, where it retains its grip on the Palestinian territories won in a 1967 war.

Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara used his country's annual address to the U.N. General Assembly opening debate to deliver a fierce critique of Israeli policy, as the Jewish state accused Damascus of "directing terrorism" and threatened preemptive strikes against militants on its territory.

Shara accused Israel of refusing to comply with 40 Security Council resolutions and hundreds of General Assembly resolutions demanding that Israel withdraw from the Palestinian territories as a step toward a Middle East peace. Washington had used Baghdad's noncompliance with U.N. resolutions as one of its rationales for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Instead, Shara said, Israel had built up a nuclear arsenal, expanded Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands, built a "racist segregation wall," which Israel says is intended to keep out suicide bombers, transformed its army into "armed gangs bent on systematic killings and war crimes" and shunned the peace process, "despite the hand extended in peace by the Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese."...

Syria had earlier accused Israel of terrorism after a Palestinian Hamas militant died in a car bombing on Sunday in Damascus.

Jordan's King King Abdullah claims that Italian hostages Simona Pari and Simona Torretta are alive. He also claims that Jordan is using all of its diplomatic and intelligence asssets to obtain the two aid worker's release. This would contradict claims made earlier by two groups who said that they have beheaded the two Italians.

Kenneth Bigley's brother also claims that he has recieved information that Bigley is alive. The Northeast Intelligence Network, which monitors Islamist bulletin boards, claims that new demands have been made for Bigley's life which suggest that he may indded be alive. Among these demands are calls for the release of radical Muslims being held in British jails, including Sheik Omar Mahmoud Abou Omar. The message said the Blair government has 48 hours to respond. In a move that shows the terrorists are becoming more and more effective in manipulating Western opinion, Bigley's brother also called on British Prime Minister Tony Blair to resign and said that if Kenneth Bigley were to die that Mr. Blair would "have blood on his hands."

In an interview, Jordan's King Abdullah called on the world's media elite to stop broadcasting terrorist propaganda--echoing the sentiments of Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week.

"Allowing the terrorists unlimited access to the newspapers and television increases their strength," he said.

"I don't think it's possible to eradicate all the groups who kidnap people, but if the international community, all together, decided not to allow the media to be used to make propaganda, by showing images with the humiliation of hostages, one part of the problem could be resolved."

Amjad Hussain Farooqi, a man under indictment for beheading Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002, has been killed by Pakistani "paramilitary police." Farooqi was also suspected of being involved in two assasination attempts against Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Daniel Pearl (graphic images, warning)was the first Western beheading victim by terrorists, and was killed long before the US invasion of Iraq.

A moment of editorializing: good riddance. Amjad Hussain Farooqi can rot in hell.

September 25, 2004

I've decided to give up writing on Sunday for Blog Lent. Even Dr. Rusty Shackleford needs a day to spend with Mrs. Shackleford, Little Miss Shackleford (5), Jr. Shackleford (2), and RS v. 2.0 (3 months). Unless there is a blogging emergency, I will see you on Monday.

I'm getting a lot of hateful conspiracy filled comments these days. But this one seemed so sincere, I thought I'd share it.

IP Address: 129.70.207.xx
Name: rodri
Email Address: xxx@xxx.com
URL:

Comments:

Clinton almost got impeached for being a human! In Bush's case it makes no sense to impeach him for that. Never before in the history of the US a president used his power for his own (or his friends) purposes like Bush.

Already we see the effects of Michael Moore coming out. It just gets better

Even if this means to kill thousands of innocent people. Everybody in Europe knew that the so-called weapons of mass destruction were pretended, the UN-inspectors didn't find any of them before the war.

Really? Then how come EVERY, and this means ALL, that's 100% for the dense out there, EVERY European intelligence service agreed that there were WMD in Iraq? Freaking moron.

But the public of the US does not have the possibility to get information. On
CNN they showed that Annan criticizes the politics of the US for a short time, but then they showed the president of Australia criticizing Annan. Why didn't they show the other 95% presidents who support Annan.

You idiot, CNN shows criticisms by your gaywad Zeropean leaders all the time. Why don't you shut the hell up and go back to watching your state-run Zeropean media? It's your continent's media that does not see the entire picture. It's a media run by an elite five miles to the left of the Clinton News Network and that runs conspiracy theories about oil and Bush's evil intentions as if they were fact. You are brainwashed you dickhead.

Look what Bush got: He turned iraque into a pool for all fundamentalistic killergroups, like a new taliban-afghanistan.

Possible good point. Instead of paying of Hamas bombers to kill Jewish babies, the Iraqi militants are now targetting other non-Jewish Westerners.

Superparty of the arabic terror, sandbox for the islamic killers, everybody can try his skills. Under Saddams regime there were no terrorgroups in Iraque.

Typical Zeropean viewpooint, reflective of the raging anti-Semitism in Europe that doesn't see killing Jews in Israel as terrorism.

For a long time the war was so-called won. If it where so, why do we
have these terrible pictures.

??? Read that with a Spanish lisp and you still might not understand it.

But some weapon and oil-industries made good money, paid by whom? The
American public! Bush's fiends earned money, that is what counts

Again, typical left-wing rhetoric. Why do Zeropeans believe this shit? Easy, because that is what theire state-run oligarchies crank out. The stuff they run looks like the worst Michael Moore propaganda out there.

Under Bush the US have lost their consideration in the world.

True enough. But that is because you are a bunch of pussy appeasers with their heads up Michael Moores enormous ass.

There should be another punishment. Sometimes the outdated death
penalty is still useful.

What the hell are you talking about? This was posted to the Eugene Armstrong Beheading Video post. Are you seriously implying that the terrorists should do away with the death penalty or what? Like Eugene Armstrong was a guy who got some sort of due process before they put a knife to his throat and cut off his head? Truly your brain was cut off along with your tiny Spanish balls at one point in your life. Maybe this was a swipe at the US death penalty?

Oh, wait, maybe you are saying Bush should get the death penalty? Since this is a PG-13 site I will reserve my choicest words, but you are an asshole of the highest caliber. A guy gets his head sawed off by the Religion of Peace and you want Bush to die? Dickheads like you make me sick. No wonder Europe is headed down the path of dhimmitude with guys like you offering the KY to the terrorists as you bend over and take the ass reamings they dish out.

The Adam Sandler gimmick. We didn't like this one either, but the focus group thought that he must have some national security value. Why else would his face be on all the buses if not to ward off an attack?

Does this shock you? You will find the info buried in this article. Polls indicate that majorities in many Muslim nations support suicide bombings that target Americans and other Westerners. And these are all polls in so-called 'moderate' states.

Rumors about this group have been circulating for some time. Just three days ago, the military was close enough to nailing Zarqawi that they took out his top aide. Missed him by that much (Maxwell Smart voice)!! NY Post:

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has created a special commando task force to destroy the vicious terror network controlled by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — and twice has come very close to killing him, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

Military officials confirmed a report on Fox News Channel that a special unit of CIA operatives and Special Forces Commandos known as Task Force 626 has been assigned to hunting down and attacking Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group.

The new force is smaller than Task Force 121, the team that hunted down Saddam Hussein and is now in Afghanistan looking for Osama bin Laden.

The secret Zarqawi task force has operatives and paid informants penetrating the ultra-violent town of Fallujah and a Sunni-dominated Baghdad neighborhood known as "Little Fallujah."

Sources told The Post that twice, once last week in the village of Zoba near Fallujah, and once last summer in Fallujah, the U.S. narrowly missed killing the elusive Zarqawi.

Tawhid and Jihad's spiritual leader, Sheik Abu Anas al-Sami, was killed in a U.S. airstrike west of Baghdad last weekend.

An Islamic message board has posted a statement claiming that Abu Musab al Zarqawi's al-Tawhid Wal Jihad terrorist organization has executed British hostage Ken Bigley. A U. K. foreign ministry spokesman denied the claim's authenticity earlier today. The message was not posted by a known member of Zarqawi's group and was on a different message board than the one usually used by the group to make major announcements. Further, Zarqawi's website has not been updated since it posted a video of Ken Bigley pleading for his life. A long with the video, the website posted propaganda messages aimed at turning the British public against Tony Blair's Labour government. The website blaimed Blair for Bigley's predicament and threatened to behead Mr. Bigley if the U.K. did not meet the terrorist organization's demands. Because this propaganda strategy seems to be working, some analysts have suggested that Bigley will be kept alive past the deadline set.

September 24, 2004

President Vladimir Putin urged journalists Friday to use their work to advance the battle against terrorism, saying the media should not just be passive observers in the face of threats by militants.

"It is obvious that the struggle against terrorism cannot be an excuse to infringe upon the freedom and independence of the press," Putin told an international media conference organized by Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency.

"But you yourselves, as professionals, should develop a model of work that would allow media to become an effective instrument in the struggle against terror, which would exclude any, even involuntary, form of assistance to terrorists' goals."

Need help from readers. If that asshat Kos can be classified as a 'legitimate news source', why not mypetjawa? I'm Rusty Shackleford, bitch!!!!

Please e-mail Google News and suggest this site as news. Mailto: source-suggestions@google.com with the suggestion that http://mypetjawa.mu.nu is a (*cough* *cough* *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*) "Great source for news, information, and editorials not covered by the mainstream press."

Update:Eating Crow. Never run with a story by al Jazeera and then claim 'conflicting reports'. It's like a paper in 1939 saying there were 'conflicting reports' coming out of Poland as to whether the Poles were invading Germany or vice-versa--based on reports coming straight out of Goebelle's office! Sorry about that. The real story seems to be that Fairuz Yamulky convinced her guard to let her go in exchange for her trying to help him get a Visa to Canada. Thank God you made it out ok!! The points below, though, on why she might not have been killed stand.

Al Jazeera reports that a terrorist organization calling itself Asad Allah Brigade will release Canadian citizen Fairuz Yamulky, a woman they have held for the past 16 days. The Canadian firm she works for has caved to the terrorist's demands and are pulling out of Iraq. A conflicting reports say that she was not released, but rather escaped. Thank God she got out alive!!

Four things: a) she's Canadian, and the terrorists have a track record of letting those from appeaser nations go. b) She's a Muslim by birth, Kurdish. Some of the terrorist organizations have a problem with killing fellow Muslims. c) She's a woman. Some of the terrorist organization have a problem with killing women--they do not have a problem with raping and beating them. d) This organization was demanding money. This might have been a simple case of extortion, tied to an ideology that justifies it.

Gunmen seized two Egyptians from their Baghdad office, the third in a new series of audacious operations to kidnap foreigners in the Iraqi capital this month.

In a separate attack that could be related, four Egyptians working for the same company as those seized in Baghdad were abducted in an area west of the capital, an Egyptian diplomat in Baghdad said Friday.

I love leftists who still cling to the illusion that the Nazis were "right-wing" and that anti-semitism is something practiced in Christian churches. However, if they would examine their own rhetoric they might understand why killing Americans has such support in the world. Here's some reader "love mail" that might open some eyes. Just a note of caution to posters, I reserve the right to publish e-mail and IP adresses.

All I can say us Bally Phew to all you blind one eyed Yankies, you deserve all that you get in the world. The Islamists hate you for supporting the jews and going after teh Oil,Bush is mad, Cheney is mad, You are all so blind and uninformed about the truth of the world.

September 23, 2004

The terrorists who claimed responsibility for the beheading deaths of Simona Pari and Simona Torretta also threatened Denmark with similar incidents. In a message which called aid workers Simona Pari and Simona Torretta "criminal Italian agents of the Italian intelligence services" (see this updated post) the Ansar al-Zawahiri terrorist organization made threats against Danish interests in Iraq and abroad. The same message begs Abu Musab al Zarqawi's al-Tawhid Wal Jihad terrorist organization to execute British hostage Kenneth Bigley "even if all the crusader nations around the world submit to their demands."

While some media outlets continue to call terrorists operating in Iraq a "resistance movement" that is simply "opposed to the US occupation", the terrorists themselves explicitly lay out their world-wide goals and raging anti-Semitism in the message. The message also illustrates the extent to which the media fuels the flames of jihadi terrorism by sensationalizing stories such as the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. References to the global jihad they are engaged in are highlighted in the following translation via Evan F. Kohlman:

“In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful…”“In response to the savage and bloody massacres that Italian forces have carried out against the Iraqi nation in the city of Al-Nasiriya; In response to the Zionist crusader forces in Iraq who have raped Muslims, mocked them, and danced around them in Iraqi prisons; In response to the support of the Italian government for the Zionist forces who kill the Muslims in Palestine; In response to the support of the Italian and Zionist governments for the Russian forces who hold Muslims hostage in Chechen prisons; In response to the insult from the Italians who made Islam sound cold and provocative when they suggested that Western civilization developed from that of Islam; In response to the politics of provocation, arrogance, conceit, and the way that the Italians have mocked the mujahideen threats to them on the Internet; In response to the refusal of the Italian government to accede to our demands: releasing the Muslim prisoners in Iraq, specifying a timetable to withdraw from Iraq, assisting in the release of Muslim prisoners in Chechen prisons, and assisting in the release of all Arab detainees held in the prisons of the Zionist allies, at the behest of the Zionists in their war on Islam:”

“Two criminal Italian agents of the Italian intelligence services—Simona Pari and Simona Toretta—have been beheaded without pity or mercy. Allah willing, we will soon publish a videotape of the beheading of the Italian hostages…”

“…Also, the Ansar al-Zawahiri Organization pledges a direct military response to the assassination of the courageous Jordanian mujahid Abu Anas al-Shami in less than 24 hours. We swear by the mighty Allah, we swear by the mighty Allah, we swear by the mighty Allah, that the assassination of Abu Anas al-Shami will not fade without a requisite punishment. And the military response will target the Zionist crusader forces in less than 24 hours.”

“Additionally, we threaten the government of Denmark with the commencement of military strikes with utmost fatal ferocity if it does not declare a timetable for its withdrawal from Iraq. The government of Denmark should benefit from the Italian lesson, and the Russian lesson, and the British lesson, and the American lesson, because we will not show mercy to any Danish citizen who falls into our hands unless the Danish nation submit to our demands.”

“And we appeal to the Tawheed wal-Jihad Movement not to spare the British hostage, and not to show him any mercy or pity, even if all the crusader nations around the world submit to their demands.”

A friend of mine is an avid Kerry supporter. No matter what I say about his wrongheadedness, he continues to support John Kerry. Can a Kerry supporter be a patriotic American? Damn right he can. Here is an open letter from David Scott Anderson. I agree exactly. Read the letter below.

Open Letter to The President, Sect. Rumsfeld and The JCF

Mr. President, Mr. Secretary and Mr. Chairman:

This is a non partisan letter on behalf of millions of Americans who have for months watched Islamic Terrorist Murder innocents in Iraq. Some of us are strong supporters of the war, others have concerns or are against it. But this letter is not about how we feel about the war. It is a letter of concern for the innocent victims of terror. Those who don’t have a Ground Zero, who will never have a monument built in their memory, those who wont ever have their stories told in a movie of the week, those who died in anonymous houses of terror, far from friends or family. Those who's suffering has been turned into sick snuff films, googled by sicker people who get their kicks seeing real suffering. Those who unlike most of those who died on 9/11, knew their death was coming and had hours, days or weeks to contemplate it.

This letter is for the Danny Pearls, The Kim Sun Il’s, the Jack Hensley’s and Eugene Armstrong’s and for the Simona Pari’s and Simona Torretta’s, and all like them who have been martyred in the name of helping rebuild Iraq. This letter is for them and for every other American, Italian, Turkish, Iraqi, Egyptian and other nationality that has died a horrible and sadistic death at the hands of thugs and murderers in Iraq.

This letter is not about casting blame, anywhere but at the doorstep of those who have committed these atrocities against humanity and decency. This letter is not about politics. It is about justice.

We know that you can not provide us with details of secret operations going on in Iraq to catch and bring these murderers to justice, but we believe it is time to let the world know that we are not standing by doing nothing. We believe it is time to talk about this, to put some pressure on those who seem to be murdering with impunity. We want to know what steps are being taken to protect the innocent civilians of Iraq, and of the many nations who are there trying to help.

Condemnations are not enough. If we were able to cut through the web of security and money that Protected Saddam and his thugs, and to bring even Saddam to Justice, we must believe, hope and pray that there is a way to do likewise with those who have committed horrors that may be smaller in number, but are no less horrific.

We ask that you respond forcefully and let the world know that the war in Iraq is not just about Military Objectives, but it is as you have said, about giving the gift of Freedom to the Iraqi people…. That freedom must include the freedom to live in a society free from terror and religious repression… We can ask no less…

I can't say I blame the mother of soon to be victim of the religion of peace, Briton Kenneth Bigley. I do, however, blame the British media for exploiting an 86 year old woman's pleas for her sons life for their own political purposes. The British media has consistently opposed the war in Iraq and has used every propaganda tool possible to portray that war in the worst light. For instance, Reuters has consistently refused to use the word "terrorist", even when describing those about to behead a fellow Englishman. The Guardian has been on the forefront of this campaign. Further evidence from The Guardian:

The 86-year-old mother of the Iraq hostage Kenneth Bigley appeared in public for the first time to beg for his release yesterday as the desperate waiting game entered its second week.

Lil Bigley, supported by her sons Philip, 49, and Stan, 64, begged the Islamist group to free him. In tears she urged: "Will you please help my son? He is only a working man who wants to support his family. Please show mercy to Ken. Send him home to me alive. His family need him and I need him."

But the strain of the public appearance and the anguish of the past eight days had taken its toll on Mrs Bigley - 2 hours after she made her appeal an ambulance was called to the family's Liverpool home. She was taken out on a stretcher and driven to hospital.

Dr Mashood Siddiqi, a consultant from Aintree hospital, had visited Mrs Bigley earlier in the evening. He said: "We are monitoring her condition. She has been under a lot of stress today but she is a strong lady."

It was revealed last night that the families of the two murdered American hostages had phoned the Bigleys to offer them support and sympathy.

Before being taken to hospital, Mrs Bigley said she had been touched by their call, adding she could not imagine what they were going through.

She added that she found the hours between 6pm and 9pm the worst each evening but the family had been taking strength from each other.

Her intervention came after the family rejected Foreign Office advice on how to handle the crisis and instead opted to make their own appeals.

Shame on you Guardian. British readers inform me that the BBC has been doing the same.

The Trinity of the Dan Rather Watch: Bill, Allah, and Ace (the mystery of the Blog Trinity is only overshadowed by it's glory) chime in today. Hey, you think all I talk about here is the Religion of Irony?

Bill at INDC has some incite into the Rather/DNC connection. There's no way you can tell me that CBS didn't give the memos to the DNC.

Some thoughts from Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi to the US Congress today. In it, he reminds us that just because the media did not broadcast the attrocities committed under the Hussein regime, they were real nonetheless. Fox News via Jane:

It's a tough struggle with setbacks, but we are succeeding.

I have seen some of the images that are being shown here on television. They are disturbing. They focus on the tragedies, such as the brutal and barbaric murder of two American hostages this week.

My thoughts and prayers go out to their families and to all those who lost loved ones.

More below.

Yet, as we mourn these losses, we must not forget either the progress we are making or what is at stake in Iraq.

We are fighting for freedom and democracy, ours and yours. Every day, we strengthen the institutions that will protect our new democracy, and every day, we grow in strength and determination to defeat the terrorists and their barbarism.

The second message is quite simple and one that I would like to deliver directly from my people to yours: Thank you, America.

We Iraqis know that Americans have made and continue to make enormous sacrifices to liberate Iraq, to assure Iraq's freedom. I have come here to thank you and to promise you that your sacrifices are not in vain.

The overwhelming majority of Iraqis are grateful. They are grateful to be rid of Saddam Hussein and the torture and brutality he forced upon us, grateful for the chance to build a better future for our families, our country and our region.

We Iraqis are grateful to you, America, for your leadership and your sacrifice for our liberation and our opportunity to start anew.

Third, I stand here today as the prime minister of a country emerging finally from dark ages of violence, aggression, corruption and greed. Like almost every Iraqi, I have many friends who were murdered, tortured or raped by the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Well over a million Iraqis were murdered or are missing. We estimate at least 300,000 in mass graves, which stands as monuments to the inhumanity of Saddam's regime. Thousands of my Kurdish brothers and sisters were gassed to death by Saddam's chemical weapons.

Millions more like me were driven into exile. Even in exile, as I myself can vouch, we were not safe from Saddam.

And as we lived under tyranny at home, so our neighbors lived in fear of Iraq's aggression and brutality. Reckless wars, use of weapons of mass destruction, the needless loss of hundreds of thousands of lives and the financing and exporting of terrorism, these were Saddam's legacy to the world.

My friends, today we are better off, you are better off and the world is better off without Saddam Hussein.

On 9 October, for the first time ever, men and women over the age of 18 in Afghanistan will have the chance to choose a new president.

The incumbent, Hamid Karzai, is expected to win, but he faces 17 other candidates ensuring that this will be a tough and rigorous exercise in democracy.

In a neighbourhood where military dictators, autocrats and ruling mullahs are the norm, the elections in Afghanistan will be a watershed and both a signal of hope for its neighbours as well as a potential threat.

The Afghan election, even if 60% successful, will be a major blow to al-Qaeda and the Taleban who have pledged to disrupt it.

It will signal that the birth place of al-Qaeda, who just three years ago were virtually in charge of running Afghanistan, can no longer count on popular support.

I posted on this a couple of weeks ago, seems like the word is getting out. On the one hand at least there's porn, not that I'm pro-porn, but it is a sign of secularization. On the other hand, porn and beheadings are not the most healthy combo. AP

Once such gory videos are posted on the Internet it does not take long for them to make their way to the packed stalls of central Baghdad's Bab al-Sharqi marketplace where consumer appetite is hungry for bloody spectacle. In the teeming open-air market, television sets rigged to sound systems broadcast the sounds and sights of tortured hostages, belly dancers and pornographic movie stars. Shoppers can ask stallholders to play DVDs that catch their attention.

These are surreal times. Americans in Iraq are beheaded on videotape. Russian children are machine-gunned in their schools. The elderly in Israel continue to be blown apart on buses. No one--whether in Madrid, Istanbul, Riyadh, Bali, Tel Aviv or New York--is safe from the Islamic fascist, whose real enemy is modernism and Western-inspired freedom of the individual.

More below.

Despite the seemingly disparate geography of these continued attacks, we are always familiar with the similar spooky signature: civilians dismembered by the suicide belt, car bomb, improvised explosive device and executioner's blade. Then follows the characteristically pathetic communiqué or loopy fatwa aired on al-Jazeera, evoking everything from the injustice of the Reconquista to some mythical grievance about Crusaders in the holy shrines. Gender equity in the radical Islamic world is now defined by the expendable female suicide bomber's slaughter of Westerners.

In response to such international lawlessness, our global watchdog, the United Nations, had been largely silent. It abdicates its responsibility of ostracizing those states that harbor such mass murderers, much less organizes a multilateral posse to bring them to justice....

First, the U.N. is not the idealistic postwar organization of our collective Unicef and Unesco nostalgia, the old perpetual force for good that we once associated with hunger relief and peacekeeping. Its membership is instead rife with tyrannies, theocracies and Stalinist regimes. Many of them, like Algeria, Cuba, Iran, Vietnam and Zimbabwe, have served on the U.N.'s 53-member Commission on Human Rights. The Libyan lunocracy--infamous for its dirty war with Chad and cash bounties to mass murderers--chaired the 2003 session. For Mr. Bush to talk to such folk about the need to spread liberty means removing from power, or indeed jailing, many of the oppressors sitting in his audience.

Second, urging democratic reforms in Palestine, as Mr. Bush also outlined, is antithetical to the very stuff of the U.N., an embarrassing reminder that nearly half of its resolutions in the past half-century have been aimed at punishing tiny democratic Israel at the behest of its larger,more populous--and dictatorial--Arab neighbors. The contemporary U.N., then, has become not only hypocritical, but also a bully that hectors Israel about the West Bank while it gives a pass to a nuclear, billion-person China after swallowing Tibet; wants nothing to do with the two present dangers to world peace, a nuclear North Korea and soon to follow theocratic Iran; and idles while thousands die in the Sudan.

Third, the present secretary-general, Kofi Annan, is himself a symbol of all that is wrong with the U.N. A multibillion dollar oil-for-food fraud, replete with kickbacks (perhaps involving a company that his own son worked for), grew unchecked on his watch, as a sordid array of Baathist killers, international hustlers and even terrorists milked the national petroleum treasure of Iraq while its own people went hungry. In response, Mr. Annan stonewalls, counting on exemption from the New York press on grounds of his unimpeachable liberal credentials. Meanwhile, he prefers to denigrate the toppling of Saddam Hussein as "illegal," but neither advocates reinstitution of a "legal" Saddam nor offers any concrete help to Iraqis crafting consensual society. Like the U.N. membership itself, he enjoys the freedom, affluence and security of a New York, but never stops to ask why that is so or how it might be extended to others less fortunate....[more here]

The website used by Abu Musab al Zarqawi's al-Tawhid Wal Jihad terrorist organization has posted the videotaped beheading murder of American hostage Jack Hensley, confirming earlier reports that Zarqawi's group was responsible. The website also posted a video, released earlier at an Islamic discussion board, of Briton Kenneth Bigley pleading for his life. An obvious propaganda film aimed at bringing public pressure on the Blair government, Bigley is seen in the video pleading for the help of British citizens in securing his release.

The website also posted a message which tries to blame Blair's Labour government for Mr. Bigley's predicament. The site claimed the Bigley would be released if "tens" of female prisoners in Iraq are freed. The Coalition Authority claims only 2 women are being held, both of whom worked on Saddam Hussein's WMD program.

Today's good news watch, NATO sending 300 trainers to Iraq to help bolster the home grown security force. Objections in NATO? That was a rhetorical question. France of course, along with mini-me-France, eg-Belgium. Of course the Frogs and their Zeropa allies have openned up their hearts to the Iraqi people and dedicated exactly zero funds and no troops to help train the new Iraqi military. These same countries also insisted that they be eligible for US rebuilding contracts. More info here and here.

September 22, 2004

UPDATE 9/23: The Italian government remains skeptical over the claims (story here). I am more confident of the claims. The original abduction was on Sept. 7th. Three days later, a message was left by a group called "Ansar al-Zawahiri", threatened to behead the hostages within 24 hrs and that their bodies would never be found. Today, Reuters reports that Ansar al-Zawahiri will soon release a video of Simona Pari and Simona Torretta being beheaded. I pray that I'm wrong, but suspect that I am not. The religion of irony has struck again.

A group calling itself the Jihad Organisation in Iraq have claimed to have murdered Simona Pari and Simona Torretta (pictured right, click to enlarge). The two Italian women were in Iraq as aid workers helping Iraqi children. They worked for A Bridge to Baghdad an organization that was in Iraq before the war, which attempted to end UN sanctions. May God speed you to his rest, and may his wrath rain down on those who murdered you. According to Reuters the group said:

We in the Jihad Organisation in Iraq announce that God's verdict has been passed on the two Italian prisoners by slaughtering, after the Italian government headed by the vile (Prime Minister Silvio) Berlusconi did not listen to our one condition to withdraw from Iraq," the statement said.

"We warn the Italian government that we will continue to strike, and to strike every foreigner living in Iraq," said the statement, dated September 22.

UPDATE 9/23: Via Chad Evans I found the full message from the al-Jihad Organization in Iraq, as translated by Evan F. Kohlman reads:

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful:

Praise be to Allah, Lord of this world and the next, and may His peace be upon the leader of his mujahideen. We in the Jihad Organization in Iraq announce that Allah’s verdict has been executed on the two Italian prisoners by slaughtering them, after the Italian government headed by the evil Berlusconi ignored our sole condition to withdraw from Iraq. We in the Jihad Organization warn the Italian government that we will continue to strike, and to strike every foreigner living in Iraq. We will not relent and we will not yield until we dig your graves in every inch of the land of Islam.

We will make Iraq a cemetery for you and all those who let themselves be seduced into committing aggression against the Muslims. Those who have done wrong will meet their fate.

UPDATE II 9/23: A second group has claimed responsibility for their deaths. Again, translation via Evan F. Kohlman:

“In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful…”“In response to the savage and bloody massacres that Italian forces have carried out against the Iraqi nation in the city of Al-Nasiriya; In response to the Zionist crusader forces in Iraq who have raped Muslims, mocked them, and danced around them in Iraqi prisons; In response to the support of the Italian government for the Zionist forces who kill the Muslims in Palestine; In response to the support of the Italian and Zionist governments for the Russian forces who hold Muslims hostage in Chechen prisons; In response to the insult from the Italians who made Islam sound cold and provocative when they suggested that Western civilization developed from that of Islam; In response to the politics of provocation, arrogance, conceit, and the way that the Italians have mocked the mujahideen threats to them on the Internet; In response to the refusal of the Italian government to accede to our demands: releasing the
Muslim prisoners in Iraq, specifying a timetable to withdraw from Iraq, assisting in the release of Muslim prisoners in Chechen prisons, and assisting in the release of all Arab detainees held in the prisons of the Zionist allies, at the behest of the Zionists in their war on Islam:”

“Two criminal Italian agents of the Italian intelligence services—Simona Pari and Simona Toretta—have been beheaded without pity or mercy. Allah willing, we will soon publish a videotape of the beheading of the Italian hostages…”

“…Also, the Ansar al-Zawahiri Organization pledges a direct military response to the assassination of the courageous Jordanian mujahid Abu Anas al-Shami in less than 24 hours. We swear by the mighty Allah, we swear by the mighty Allah, we swear by the mighty Allah, that the assassination of Abu Anas al-Shami will not fade without a requisite punishment. And the military response will target the Zionist crusader forces in less than 24 hours.”

“Additionally, we threaten the government of Denmark with the commencement of military strikes with utmost fatal ferocity if it does not declare a timetable for its withdrawal from Iraq. The government of Denmark should benefit from the Italian lesson, and the Russian lesson, and the British lesson, and the American lesson, because we will not show mercy to any Danish citizen who falls into our hands unless the Danish nation submit to our demands.” “And we appeal to the Tawheed wal-Jihad Movement not to spare the British hostage, and not to show him any mercy or pity, even if all the crusader nations around the world submit to their demands.”

Scroll down past updates for original post on the Jack Hensley video for links to video, images from it, and news.

-----------------------------------------------UPDATE 10/08: Kenneth Bigley executed in Iraq by Zarqawi terrorist organization. The story is developing, but sources in Fallujah claim Bigley beheaded. For the latest information, links to video, and images on the Kenneth Bigley murder please go to the MAIN PAGE or by CLICKING HERE for the 10/08 report.

For the latest information, links to video, and images on hostages in Iraq please check the main page by CLICKING HERE.

Here is a list of all the victims of Islamic Beheadings since late July this year.

A new video has been released by Abu Musab al Zarqawi's al-Tawhid Wal Jihad terrorist organization showing the gruesome beheading murder of American hostage Jack Hensley. A link to the video is below. The group claimed to have beheaded Mr. Hensley yesterday at an Islamic bulletin board. My previous post about this is here. Images from the video are in the extended entry below.

UPDATE: If you would like to help the Hensley family in their time of need please consider donating to the Jack Hensley Foundation.

WARNING!! Video is very graphic. More than that, it is sick and disgusting. Earlier today the terrorist released a video in which they try to blame the imminent beheading of Kenneth Bigley on Tony Blair. After you see this, you will know who the real criminals are.

UPDATE 10/08: Kenneth Bigley is confirmed dead in Iraq. Reuters claims sources in Fallujah have confirmed the Kenneth Bigley has been beheaded. The initial reports of Bigley's death, first reported here, turned out to be false. However, several independent sources now confirm his death. Updates, news, information, links to video, images, and pics can be found at the MAIN PAGE or by CLICKING HERE to 10/08 report.

On the video Bigley is heard begging Tony Blair to meet the terrorists demands. He says that the "terrorists are not asking for much. All they want is their wives, their daughters, their mothers." He also begs the citizens fo the UK to contact the government. Unfortunately for Mr. Bigley, the terrorists believe, falsely, the the Coalition is holding many female prisoners. They are not. Only two females are being held, both with ties to the Saddam Hussein regime. Do you see why I believe al Jazeera ought to be bombed? Because they spread the kind of propaganda that the terrorists believe. They actually believe that the US is there to rape their women, kill their children, and imprison their mothers. I feel truly sad for Mr. Bigley. I would probably beg for my life too had I been in his place. God bless your soul and speed it to heaven.

The last images in the video are pure propaganda. The first reads "Does a British civilian worth anything to Blair?"

The second "Will he try to save this hostage or will he not care?"

The last "Do leaders really care abou their people?"

The terrorists are attempting to blame Blair for this man's imminent death.

I have begun to ban commenters from the forum. If you want to argue strategy, fine. If you wish to argue that Bush = Hitler or that America is to blame for the ills of the world, you are banned. No blog for you!! If you believe you have been banned unfairly I am open to revisiting the issue. I have been wrong in the past and mistakes will be made. Just drop me a line.

The good news is that post-9/11 measures have decreased the flow of money--especially out of the Gulf States--the bad news is that terrorists don't need a lot of money for operations. Moscow Times:

Wealthy Chechen businessmen and Islamic and pro-Chechen charities in the Persian Gulf, Jordan, Turkey, Europe and the United States once accounted for most of the hundreds of millions of dollars in fundraising. It was mostly done through a far-flung Chechen diaspora and Islamic charities often using murky and secret transactions that are difficult to track.

Now the money is smuggled into Chechnya largely by private businessmen traveling through Azerbaijan, the Chechen activists and experts said.

The largest contributions are believed to still be from the gulf, with smaller amounts moving through Turkey, Europe, Islamic states and even North America.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury Department accused an American arm of a Saudi charity, the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, of links to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. The department alleged the charity tried to conceal funds intended for Chechnya by omitting them from tax returns and mischaracterizing their use.

The Treasury Department also said there were allegations that donations made to Al-Haramain for Chechen refugees were diverted to rebels and Chechen leaders affiliated with al-Qaida.

"Finances have been flowing into Chechnya in support of both the global jihad and the separatist movement," said Molly Millerwise, a spokeswoman at the Treasury Department.

Aid groups insist the money they collect is for refugees and infrastructure in Chechnya, but Chechens and terrorism financing experts say at least part of the funds is diverted to fighters.

"Money for refugees, it never existed," Nasho said. "The money went to the fighters."

The EU has just announced that it will follow the US lead in lifting sanctions against Libya. This Reuters article is informative, but in typical Reuters fashion it leaves out some important details. What details? Oh, the fact that Libya decided to get rid of it's WMD program--including it's nuclear agenda purchased from the pre-Afghanistan invasion Pakistan--after the Bush administration began to flex it's muscle in the Middle East. Have bad things happened because of the Iraq invasion? Absolutely. But it would be intellectually dishonest not to take the good with the bad. This is good news.

UPDATE 10/08: Kenneth Bigley executed in Iraq by Zarqawi terrorist organization. The story is developing, but sources in Fallujah claim Bigley beheaded. For the latest information, links to video, and images on the Kenneth Bigley murder please go to the MAIN PAGE or by CLICKING HERE for the 10/08 report.

For the latest information, links to video, and images on hostages in Iraq please check the main page by CLICKING HERE.

Here is a list of all the victims of Islamic Beheadings since late July this year.

UPDATE 3:38 EDT: A new video of Kenneth Bigley has been posted. In the video he pleads for his life. Links to video and images from it posted here.

No, not yet. The deadline looms. I weep for his family, but he is already dead. I will update this post as soon as it's official. Until then I will be in class.

UPDATE 1:14 EDT: The Scotsman reports that a message from Zarqawi said:

“The British prisoner will meet the same fate if the British government does not carry out what it should do for his release,” it said, adding that President George Bush would die in “rage” and Prime Minister Tony Blair would “cry blood.”

Some earlier reports said we were giving in to the demand by Abu Musab al Zarqawi's al-Tawhid Wal Jihad terrorist organization that "all female prisoners in Iraq be freed" or Briton Kenneth Bigley would be executed. The latest news is that these reports were false. I repeat, we are not caving to terrorist demands. Reuters:

Two Iraqi female prisoners being held by U.S. authorities in Iraq will not be released imminently, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad said on Wednesday.
"The two women are in legal and physical custody of the multinational forces in Iraq and neither will be released imminently," a spokesman for the U.S. embassy said.

Senior officials in the Iraqi Justice Ministry said earlier on Wednesday that at least one of the two, microbiologist Rihab Taha, could be freed as early as Wednesday following a review of her detention status.

If she had been freed, it might have opened the way for the release of British hostage Kenneth Bigley, seized by Islamic militants who have said they will execute him if female prisoners are not released from Iraqi prisons.

I think Flea would say something like, "This is the time at mypetjawa when we dance." Whooo-hooo!! AP:

Jordan (AP) The spiritual leader of a militant group that claimed to have beheaded two American hostages in Iraq has been killed in a U.S. airstrike, and his Jordanian family is preparing a wake, a newspaper and Islamic clerics said Wednesday.

Sheik Abu Anas al-Shami, 35, was killed when a missile hit the car he was traveling in on Friday in the west Baghdad suburb of Abu-Ghraib, said the clerics, who have close ties to the family. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

Al-Shami was a close aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of the militant group Tawhid and Jihad. The al-Qaida-linked group is blamed for some of the biggest attacks in Iraq, including the bombing of the U.N. headquarters last year, and the beheadings of foreign hostages including two Americans this week.

Al-Zarqawi is believed to have personally decapitated the American hostage Eugene Armstrong on Monday.

Al-Shami, a Jordanian of Palestinian descent who was also known as Omar Yousef Jumah, was believed to be the voice on several audio tapes that Tawhid and Jihad released via the Internet. In one such tape in August, a speaker identified as al-Shami said the militants planned to kill Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, soldiers and police officers.

''We will not allow you to destroy our hopes in this blessed holy war, and we will not let you steal our bright tomorrow, which is now appearing on the horizon,'' the speaker said on the tape.

In a hurry, first midterm to give out today. You guys thought taking a test was hard, try grading 200 of them. So, what does the young untenured college professor eat for breakfast when he's in a hurry? Blogs!

September 21, 2004

It's not so bad when it's a private company, but it is bad. It's much worse when it's a government. I'm looking at you France and Spain. Remember the two French hostages? No? That's because the French government has been secretly negotiating with the terrorists, using other terrorists (Hamas) as the go between. On to the NYTimes story:

The employer of 10 Turkish workers kidnapped simultaneously in Iraq last week made an emotional plea for their release on Tuesday, promising to freeze operations in Iraq to save their lives and denying that his company had any American partners.

The employer, Ali Haydar Veziroglu, who is chairman of Vinsan construction company, issued a statement in the form of a letter to all Iraqis and particularly to Muslim clerics and tribal leaders, assuring them of Turkey's good will.

I love how they are reduced to denying any American connection. As if it would be ok to kill the hostages if there were any Americans lurking about.

Say what you will about the global war on terror, there are definitely many drawbacks to the war, but not to recognize the clear benefits would be a serious mistake and is not intelectually honest. Before we invaded Afghanistan, Pakistan fueled the flames of jihad around the globe. Worse than that, they sold nuclear plans and material to the highest bidder. Today, Pakistan is an ally in the war against Islamic terrorism. It is true that they are a reluctant ally with the secularists in a shaky position, but a reluctant ally in a shaky position is better than the solid enemy that they were. Indian Express:

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said in an interview on Monday that his leadership was freeing his country from the menace of extremism and that this national ‘‘renaissance’’ might be lost if he kept his pledge to step down as Army chief at the end of this year.

And while Musharraf asserted that he had succeeded in breaking up the network of a top Pakistani scientist who provided illicit nuclear technology to other countries, he said the full extent of that network was not yet known.

I love the Rathergate thing, props to us, but how about a daily briefing on it along with a daily updated timeline or something? Seriously, I got lost somewhere between "forgery" and "Lucy is a man, baby".

Zarqawi's group announces "slaughter" of second American hostage. A message posted moments ago on the Ansar message board announced the murder of American hostage Jack Hensley. The posting was made by the same individual who posted yesterday's announcement of Armstrong's murder, and who has a history of posting announcements from Zarqawi's Tawhid wa Jihad group.

The announcement indicated that photos and a video would be forthcoming shortly.

“The nation’s zealous children slaughtered the second American hostage … after the end of the deadline,” said the statement, posted under the pseudonym Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, who has posted past statements in the group’s name.

"The sons of our nation have slit the throat of the second American hostage after the deadline passed and we will provide you with pictures soon," said the contributor, who goes by the pseudonym Abu Maisarah al-Iraqi.....

Bigley’s brother spoke to Aljazeera.net immediately following Hensley's reported "execution" condemning British Prime Minister Tony Blair for his policy in Iraq and urging mercy for his brother.

“I utterly condemn the UK stance on foreign policy. Blair is a bully,” Paul Bigley said. “The second captive has been executed. Ken is next. Ken is a good guy.”

Don't all you trolls who have been posting on my site feel better now that you know you hold the exact same opinion about Bush and Blair that the terrorists do?

Critical UPDATE 3:29 EDT: Zarqawi's website now confirms Hensley's death. Is there a reader who can translate Arabic?

UPDATE 3:40 EDT: Here is a picture of the announcement on the website. (Click image for larger view)

We have beheaded the second American hostage after the expiration of the deadline.. And we will release film footage soon, God willing..And we will execute the British hostage unless the British government pulls out unconditionally..(???!! ???!! Somthing about female Muslims)
??? "Bush" ??? "Blair" God is Great... God bless and protect Muslims"

UPDATE 8:39 PM CDT: The video has not been posted yet. The way these things usually work is that a member of Zarqawi's group posts a message to an Islamic bulletin board stating the video will be released soon. Sometimes a link to a free web host is posted to the bulletin board later that day hosting the video. Other times Zarqawi's group posts it to their own website. NEIN reports that this time the host of the Islamic bulletin board, Ansarnet, took down the original post and it seems they've banned the poster of the message Irhabi 007 (Terrorist 007) from the board. Why did they ban him? Nope, not because he is a terrorist scumbag. He was banned after he insisted that we kufr pay him to download the video!

I should expect the video to be up at Zarqawi's site tomorrow morning some time. I will try keep everyone up to date.

Syrian forces have begun to withdraw some of their troops from positions around Lebanon's capital of Beirut. Remember Lebanon? No? Let me refresh your memory. Syria invaded Lebanon in 1976. That's right, 1976!! Just two weeks ago the UN Security Council demanded Syria withdraw from Lebanon amidst the Beirut puppet government's gambit to extend the term of President Emile Lahoud. One last thing, the Syrian government is ruled by the pan-Arabic Baathist party. Yes, THAT Baathist party. The one that Saddam Hussein was leader of in Iraq. Now about those WMD......

A website linked to Abu Musab al Zarqawi's al-Tawhid Wal Jihad terrorist organization has posted a video of the murder of Eugene Armstrong. This confirms earlier reports that Zarqawi personally beheaded Eugene Armstrong. While several beheadings have been attributed to the group, the website has only claimed responsibility for South Korean Kim Sun-Il and American Nick Berg. Zarqawi has threatened to kill one of the two remaining hostages within the next few hours if his demands are not met. We pray for the souls of American Jack Hensley and Briton Kenneth Bigley, if they are not already the victims of Islamic paranoia and bigotry they soon will be. God speed to you.

September 20, 2004

Links to Eugene Armstrong beheading video and images from the video are below. Scroll Down

UPDATE 10/08: Kenneth Bigley executed in Iraq by Zarqawi terrorist organization. The story is developing, but sources in Fallujah claim Bigley beheaded. For the latest information, links to video, and images on the Kenneth Bigley murder please go to the MAIN PAGE or by CLICKING HERE for the 10/08 report.

UPDATE: 10/02: For the latest information, links to video, and images on hostages in Iraq please check the main page by CLICKING HERE.

Here is a list of all the victims of Islamic Beheadings since late July this year.

American Hostage Eugene Armstrong has been beheaded in a new video released by the Army of Ansar al Sunna, a group with links to al Qaeda and head by Abu Musab al Zarqawi. I have the video. Still images from the video are in the extended entry.

I am sick. I am in tears. I am enraged. God, strike down these sick bastards!!! Lord, where is justice?? In the video Eugene Armstrong can be heard screaming in agony. What kind of monters do this?? Fox:

One of the American hostages kidnapped last week in Iraq has been beheaded by the Al Qaeda-linked group of Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to a Web site

The statement, posted Monday by a Web site contributor who has put up past statements signed in the name of Tawhid and Jihad, couldn't be confirmed.

It said that al-Zarqawi, "God protect him, has beheaded the first American. The group will next behead the others." The site said a video of the killing would be posted later.

Expect Updates.

UPDATE: NEIN is hosting the video. It can be downloaded here, but this is one of the most awful things I have ever seen. While Zarqawis goons read a statement you can see Eugene Armstrong muttering something over and over. A prayer perhaps? The fact that the victim is an American makes me sick and angry. I was angered by all the other videos, but I have not felt like this since Paul Johnson.

Images from the video. Graphic images are in the extended entry.

This next photo is from Zarqawi's website and is from last week's attack on a US Bradley fighting vehicle. As a refresher, a number of "innocent civillians" along with a Palestinian journalist who "just happened" to be at the scene were killed when the US opened fire on the car swarm.

UPDATE:Blogs of War has this translation from the video:"Oh, you Christian dog Bush, stop your arrogance … the mujahideen will give America a taste of the degradation you have inflicted on the Iraqi people,” Right, this has nothing to do with religion.

With a headline like that the content is sure to be disappointing. NCTimes:

Daniel Avila, 25, admitted Wednesday that he handed out fliers at the city's Oktoberfest celebration stating, "President George W. Bush Deserves to Be Assassinated." The handbill also called for a sex attack on the president's twin daughters....

Avila first got the attention of authorities when he showed up wielding a hatchet at a July 26 meeting of the Planning Commission. A sheriff's sergeant regularly attends the meeting...

He's running for City Council," Masry said. "We have a situation where these council meetings can proceed without any fear of somebody doing something irrational. Advocating killing Bush and raping his daughters is irrational."

A photo taken outside of CBS's LA affiliate, via LGF. Hint: Look closely at the windshield.

UPDATE: One of the Communists for Kerry e-mailed me with the confession that a member of the Lenin Youth Brigaide saw this van parked outside the New York CBS affiliate. Not surprising. I guess I jumped the gun in assuming it was LA (LA's CBS affiliate is channel 2 too). Anyway they have a few more pictures up at their site. Go check them out.

Finally some good news for the US from followers of the Religion of Peas. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is predicted to becme the first President in Indonesian history to be chosen by direct election. Indonesia still has a long way to go before becoming a fully functioning democracy, but this is a move in the right direction from the US standpoint. The best news? Yudhoyono has promised to escalate Indonesia's commitment to fighting terrorism and the Islamist insurgency that has plagued the country. Expect a lot out of the Chomsky wing of the DU on this because Yudhoyono was once stationed in East Timor as chief of staff. This SF Gate article gives some good background information on Gen. Yudhoyono:

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a retired four-star general trained in the United States, led the fight against Indonesia's main al-Qaida-linked militant group. But in a country wary of military dictatorships and human rights violations, he also has projected an image of caution -- and was even nicknamed "the thinking general."

As security minister, Yudhoyono led the crackdown against Muslim militants after the Bali bombing in 2002 and the Marriott hotel bombing in Jakarta in 2003. More than 100 militants have been jailed so far, and over 50 have been convicted, including three sentenced to death. The assault is thought to have dispersed the al-Qaida-linked Jamaa Islamiya, believed now to have split into smaller groups with less coordination.

Yudhoyono's tough stance against terrorists in the world's most populous Muslim nation appeared to have won admiration in Washington.

Besides being Indonesia's point man on terrorism since 2001, Yudhoyono has sought to settle the country's bloodiest conflict -- the 28-year separatist insurgency in Aceh province. He negotiated a six-month cease-fire with the rebels, but Megawati pulled out of the deal under pressure from hard-line generals.

Michelle Malkin and the Commissar have the goods. One question: "Has the world gone absolutely nuts?"

In related "let's elect a President based on his Vietnam Era record" news, Captain Ed gets his first op-ed in the NY Post:

WHEN John Kerry "reported for duty" at the Democratic National Convention and pres ented himself as qualified to lead by virtue of his service in Vietnam, he opened up for public scrutiny his actions in Vietnam and, later, as an antiwar activist.

Did MPJ get a mention at the Democratic Underground or what? I'm getting some serious hate comments these days. Here's what Erik wrote in reply to a post on the Religion of Beheadings:

I am mad, Bush got us into this mess, I wish they'd decaptitate him! i would pay for that.

PS-Erik's e-mail is dgrombacher@cbot.com

Oh, here's another one posted by Earle J. Landry (ejl1105@aol.com) to one of my many Kitty Kelley rants:

Your apologies and generalities cannot excuse this criminal nation of the foul deeds that are recognized by the civilized world, which includes The World Court and the United Nations. Media apologists must carry the guilt and convictions yet to come. Kitty Kelley provides excellent insights.

UPDATE 10/08: Kenneth Bigley executed in Iraq by Zarqawi terrorist organization. The story is developing, but sources in Fallujah claim Bigley beheaded. For the latest information, links to video, and images on the Kenneth Bigley murder please go to the MAIN PAGE or by CLICKING HERE for the 10/08 report.

UPDATE: 10/02: For the latest information, links to video, and images on hostages in Iraq please check the main page by CLICKING HERE.

Here is a list of all the victims of Islamic Beheadings since late July this year.

Two new hostage video emerged over the weekend. One depicting two Americans and a British hostage being threatened with death unless "female prisoners in Iraq were released". I am afraid that these hostages have no hope--none. Another video shows the murder of three Iraqi kurds by the Army of al Sunna, a terrorist organization run by Abu Musab al Zarqawi with links to al Qaeda. The beheading video begins with a 'confession' by the three Kurds who were working for the Kurdistan Democratic Party, a long-time partner of the United States against the Hussein regime. The terrorists then cut off their heads with a knife. In Afghanistan, the remnant Taliban army has announced that it has beheaded three government soldiers. The Religion of Peace and compassion has struck again. You can download the Kurdish beheading video here or here, both require free registration but at least they are not Ogrish and are openly pro-American. I have posted several pictures from the video below, in the extended entry. Why do I do this? Because we need constant reminders of the evil forces we are fighting against. We are up against people who do this sort of thing because they believe it is the right thing to do. We are fighting an ideology, not simply a gang of criminals. Click on the photos for links to news articles.

September 17, 2004

Damn the sitemeter, full speed ahead! No more posting today or tomorrow. I'm going camping. I hate camping. Don't get me wrong, I love nature. I love to fish, SCUBA dive, sail, etc. I just hate sleeping in a freaking tent. My philosophy about nature? It should be loved, cherished, respected---and then dominated! Ciao, peeps.

PS-Sorry about the lack of content and general silliness today, but all work and no play make Rusty a something something....

Double PS- Mucho linkage opportunity for any blogger who get's some of the big-whigs to join the Alliance of Blog Pimps.

Is the body of a Westerner found in the Tigris River that of an Australian said to have been abducted last week? Don't know yet, but the Aussies are looking into it. Have I mentioned that the Aussies already have sent an 'Aggressive Negotiations' team to Iraq? Oh, and Aussie Pixie Misa notes that "Yes, all [Aussie] negotiators are equipped with grenades and 50-cal sniper rifles, why do you ask?" Queensland Sunday Mail:

AUSTRALIA'S embassy in Baghdad is investigating a report that the body of a western man has been found in the Tigris River near Samarra in central Iraq.[MORE]

Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility on Friday for the Russian school siege in which more than 320 hostages were killed, half of them children, and threatened further attacks by any means he saw fit.

Basayev, Russia's most wanted man, expressed regret for the bloody outcome in Beslan, which he blamed on the Kremlin. But he made clear there would be no let-up in rebel attacks in the future in the campaign for an independent Chechnya.

"We are not bound by any circumstances, or to anybody, and we will continue to fight as is convenient and advantageous to us, and by our rules," he said in an unrepentant statement published on a rebel Web site.

Earlier I reported that two more American hostages have been taken in Iraq. Reuters now names them as Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong. The third hostage's name will be released later, after the British authorities have contacted his family.

All three worked for Gulf Supplies and Commercial (GSCS) services, a Doha Qatar company. On 4/16/2003 GSCS was awarded a contract by the US Army Corps Of Engineers for "Life Support Services". On 3/14/04 GSCS was awarded a $47 million dollar contract with with the Coalition Provisional Authority for "Base Camp Life Support". GSCS also has several sub-contracts providing services in Iraq, including: building and servicing camps for coalition forces and civillian construction workers, installin LAN equipment and other telecommunicatins equipment, servicing Seabees engages in building orphanages and other infrastructure improvements, and other general contracting and servicing projects.

The video opens with shots of a truck convoy that has just been attacked. It then shows three Arab men 'confessing' to the 'crime' of driving trucks bringing supplies to the coalition forces. The tape then cuts to three people being shot in the back as they lie face down on the ground. According to Global Terror Report, the terrorists warn on the tape:

"anyone who co-operates with the crusader forces to repent [from supporting] the infidels and apostates... or the mujahideen will kill you."

Could these be the sources of the 3 decapated bodies that were found yesterday?

In case you didn't check the link earlier, Johnny Ramone passed away. Johnny was a punk rock legend and a Republican to the end. Read the shirt below. It pretty much sums up his attitude, and mine. We will miss you Johnny!

Bill at INDC and Mike at Rathergate are turning words into action. Bill gets the Abilene Kinko's to promise not to delete recent video surveillance tapes. Again, the power of a blogger doing the unthinkable: picking up a telephone and calling someone. In case you're just waking up, a guy by the name of Bill Burkett may be behind the Killian forgeries and may have made copies and faxed them from a Kinko's in Abilene. Is he on that tape?

Mike at Rathergate has an online petition to CBS shareholders. Please go and share your disgust, but be civil.

Earlier reports had said that 3 British citizens were kidnapped in Iraq. It looks like it might have been 2 Americans and 1 Briton. But you know what they say: "All infidels look alike". Also, the Aussies have decided to send in the SAS, or Special Air Services. From what I hear, these guys mean business. It should be noted, though, that the Aussies have not been able to verify that any of their citizens are missing. News stories below.

Confusion reigned over the nationalities of three Westerners abducted in Baghdad, as Iraqi police said they were two Americans and a Briton, after the interior ministry said they were three Britons.

"The people kidnapped were two Americans and a Briton," said a colonel from the Maamun police station that oversees operations in the plush Mansur district of the Iraqi capital where the three hostages were seized by gunmen.

He said the hostages worked for a supply company but declined to elaborate and insisted on withholding his name.

An interior ministry spokesman said earlier that three British civilians had been snatched from their home at dawn.

"We've heard the report from the interior ministry and we're trying to get to the bottom of it," US embassy spokesman Richard Schmierer told AFP.

A British spokeswoman said only that the embassy was desperately trying to determine what had happened.

"We are aware of these reports and we are urgently seeking information. We're just trying to verify what happened," she said.

A SPECIAL Air Service team last night flew out for Iraq as part of a contingency plan to rescue hostages should a claim that two Australian security guards have been kidnapped by terrorists be substantiated.

And an Australian Federal Police team, specially trained for a hostage crisis in the Middle East, was on standby to negotiate with the Horror Brigades of the Islamic Secret Army.

The terrorists claimed on Monday night they would kill the two Australians unless John Howard pulled Australia's 300-troop contingent out of Iraq within 24 hours.

The terrorists claimed they had seized two Australians and two Asians, apparently their clients, near the Iraqi city of Samarra.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said last night 147 Australian civilians out of 202 working in Iraq had been accounted for. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials were checking on the remaining known 55 -- though there could be more.

The Government had a list of 154 Australians employed as aid workers, security workers or general contractors, but the actual number of Australians believed to be in Iraq was much higher, Mr Downer said.

Mr Downer said it could take several days to account for all Australians in Iraq and to determine "whether the threat was real or a hoax".

Last night there had been no further word from the Islamic Secret Army since its claim it had kidnapped the four men on the highway from Baghdad to the northern city of Mosul was made in a statement in the Sunni Muslim stronghold of Samarra on Monday night.

As the SAS team of between 12 and 30 troopers flew to Iraq, Canberra had got no closer to verifying the threat.

So you decide to call it a day early and what happens? All hell breaks loose. Evil Glenn Reynolds pitches two softballs to Quinton and he instalaunches them out of the park. Way to go, dude! But where's my Instalaunch? What about Rusty? *sigh*

Well, let's see all the links I missed over night. We call this little bit, the morning breakfast link drop. What's for breakfast today? Bill Burkett and Dan Rather.

-Morning music: Iron Maiden. No, I take that back: the Ramones.
-Don't forget to say grace and thank Allah for all the links that matter.
-Green eggs AND ham? I do not like them Dan Rather-man. Quinton on the case.
-In Russia we eat kasha. Horosho deteknivi robotaet! And kasha casts a long shadow. Where did I eat kasha? In Moscow, moron. If you're ever there, I highly recommend heading to the Great Patriotic War memorial which is built at the spot of furthest advancement for the German Army. Is the Killian memo the equivelant of the Russian winter to European armies?
-Did you know that bear is a much loved meat of choice in some cultures? There's nothing like waking up to some good bear after an evening at a Broadway musical followed by long night of hedonism at the disco.
-In Virginia they eat grits. Grits are kind of like kasha, only you'll never hear Dan Rather say "Kiss my kasha" to the blogosphere. It just doesn't sound right.
-What do Kinko's employees eat for breakfast? Brauts.
-However, and as much as Jeff Goldstein would hate to admit this, in Abilene there is only one food group: Beef. And to drink? How about a hearty cup of Joe, but, er, they call it something different down there in Texas.
-At the other end of the political spectrum, in MA they eat cake for breakfast.
-How much does breakfast cost in Texas these days anyway? A buck fiddy.
-And last but not least, when it comes down to it, always be cautious when dishing out breakfast. You never know when your idle speculation will come back to bite you in the arse.

Jeff at Beautiful Attrocities asks what is on everybody's mind: What does Michelle Malkin wear to bed. Then he asks what is on Dan Rather's mind: What does Katrina vanden Hueval wear to bed. Then he asks what is on no-ones mind: What does Rusty Shackleford wear to bed. Shocking!

In related news I have finally been outted by the Llama Butchers. Here is a picture of me at the last APSA meeting.

It an amazing thing to watch. From state troopers to lounge singers to homely office clerks to love story to swift boats, this country has been taken on a multi million dollar right wing funded fraud for over a decade and I still haven't seen even one "journalist" apologize, retract or even acknowledge it.

Did CBS run with crudely forged docs? Here at THE HOWLER, we can’t really say. But how comical are the outraged squeals about “liberal bias” which are all over cable? Those squeals are very comical. What does this current episode show? It shows this: If you broadcast a shaky tale about Bush, the world will land on your head in an instant. Does this show the corps’ “liberal bias?” We’d have to say that it does not.

Have we now reached the point (courtesy of TechCentralShilling) where a significant portion of the conservative blogosphere actually believes that it provides a thoroughly reliable fact-check function?

We don't need the CBS memos to know that George W. Bush used family connections to get into the National Guard ahead of other young men, then skipped out on his Guard service prior to a medical evaluation (interesting, that, in light of Bush's non-denial denials of youthful drug use), then got his dad's "good friend" to pull strings once again, netting the future president an honorable discharge that he probably didn't earn.

One of the reasons I'm annoyed by the whole Killian memo fiasco is that even if they're real they don't really add much to the story. After all, here's what we already know: [long list of stuff based on the CBS Story]

A months-long investigation, which includes examination of hundreds of government-released documents, interviews with former Guard members and officials, military experts and Bush associates, points toward the conclusion that Bush's personal behavior was causing alarm among his superior officers and would ultimately lead to his fleeing the state to avoid a physical exam he might have had difficulty passing. His failure to complete a physical exam became the official reason for his subsequent suspension from flying status....

Questions have been raised about the authenticity of those memos, but the criticism of them appears at this time speculative and inconclusive, while their substance is consistent with a growing body of documentation and analysis.

I dont give a rats ass. Its over. Let's move on, unless you want to keep talking about this till Election Day. CBS blew it, they screwed up, a drunken monkey with 60 Minutes budget and persistence could get the goods on Bush. In fact the unasked question that no one seems to be putting out there is this. With 250 assholes willing to spout off their opinion about Kerry's leadership, isnt it amazing that not even the bartender at the freaking TANG officer's club has any Fond or otherwise recollections of Bush... Please!

The first indictment in relation to the Beslan school massacre has been filed against Nurpasha Kulaev, a Chechen national, on at least nine charges, Pravda reports. Pravda also reports that authorities have recovered the bodies of at least 30 terrorists. Ten terrorists, so far, have been identified by nationality. One hundred and twenty-two former hostages are still hospitalized. Fifty adults and 25 children are listed in critical condition. Elsewhere, Chechens downed a Mi-24 helicopter on Monday, killing two crew members. In news that is probably somehow tangentially related to Kitty Kelley, Pravda also warns of UFO clouds abducting humans.

CNN is reporting that it was a 'bribe' that got the two female Chechen suicide bombers on board a flight they later managed to blow up. The names of the two suspected terrorists are Aminat Nagayeva and Satsia Dzhebirkhanova. No word if that was cash or Visa.
Two illegally scalped tickets, including airline bribe: $69-$100.
The chance to blow up a plane full of infidels: priceless.

One of two female suicide bombers who set off explosives on Russian passenger jets, killing all 89 aboard, bribed her way aboard the plane, according to Russian Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov.

Ustinov made his comments on the August 24 crash in an interview with Interfax news agency and the Russian newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

The prosecutor general said a man identified by his last name as Artyunov was illegally selling airline tickets at the airport. He helped the two women obtain tickets after taking 2,000 rubles ($69) from one and 3,000 rubles ($103) from the other.

He then bribed a Siberia Airlines official responsible for controlling passenger registration and boarding by paying him 1,000 rubles ($35). The suicide bomber was able to board the plane en route to the southern Russian town of Sochi.

The prosecutor general also said the two women, identified as Aminat Nagayeva and Satsia Dzhebirkhanova, from Grozny, Chechnya, earlier had been taken into custody when they arrived at Moscow's Domodeveo airport accompanied by two Chechen men.

Police officers confiscated their passports and handed them over to a police captain responsible for anti-terrorist operations for a further check. The captain let them go without checking them and they set about obtaining tickets for the later flights in the same building.

Both the man illegally selling tickets and the Siberia Airlines official have been arrested, according to Ustinov.

The Swifties have a new ad out, this time attacking John Kerry for throwing his medals away. Of course, John Kerry threw his medals away before he didn't....or something. Anyway, I saw it while watching Fox last night. View the video by clicking this link. Also, the Swifties have a new website here and are soliciting contributions to help run the new ad.

UPDATE: Could Rathergate be the result of Veterans for Kerry retaliating for the damage done by the Swifties? Bill Hobbs suggests that Bob Tuke, a Nashville area attorney and Tennesse state chairman for Veterans for Kerry may be Rather's deep throat.

Dear Sons of Pigs and Madonna,
May the coming year be as peaceful and blessed as the last, you ape-people, and may rocks and trees call out to reveal your presence to the brave shahids who will slaughter you before the Day of Judgement.
Love,
Yassir Arafat

Dr. Rusty Shackleford can reveal from reliable unnamed sources that while engaged in certain unnamed sexual behaviors, illegal in at least four Southern States, a certain unnamed 'author', who goes by the name of Kitty Kelley, snorted cocaine off the heaving bosoms of an unnamed blogger, who happens to go by the name of Anna Marie Cox (aka, Wonkette). How reliable are my unnamed sources that Kitty Kelley did Coke in the White House while giving Ashlee Simpson an abortion paid for by Oprah Winfrey? Very. In fact, my editor was in the room when Paris Hilton broke down and told me the whole sordid affair over the phone and my editor definitely overheard me saying such things as, "Wow, Paris" and "uh-huh, keep talking", thus proving the validity of the story.

Just want to share a comment someone dropped with you. I actually get like one or two of these a day now, but mostly on old posts so it's not likely the regulars get around to see them. Let's just call this comment ironical:

GO F*CK YOURSELF, DUMMY - GOT A COLLEGE EDUCATION?PROBABLY NOT - STUPID REDNECK )!_HOW MANY MORE SHOULD DIE IN IRAQ ?_ JUST TO LINE HALLIBURTON'S COFFERS (SHOULD I DEFINE THE WORD FOR YOU?) PS IT'S LINING ALL THE REPUBLICANS WALLETS TO KILL MEN IN IRAQ _TOO BAD YOU'RE TOO STUPID TO SEE IT

My response:

Laura,
Thank you for the kind words. Now that I know that education will cure me of the Bush-Halliburton disease, I will enroll in my local community college post haste! I'm sure that this is nothing a good political science professor couldn't cure me of. I always knew there was some sort of super-secret conspiracy going on here. Do you think that the more educated one gets the more they believe conspiracy theories? Sign me up!! I've got a few Area 51--Illuminati--Cheney theories in the back of my mind. Also, had I known that the Republican party was giving out money for supporting the war I would have joined long ago. Man (slapping forehead) I need to get me some of that action.

UPDATE:Newer sources indicate the bodies were probably those of Arabs. Frequent commenter Cindy put two and two together and wonders about the fate of the four Iraqi policemen that were captured five days ago. Could thre of them have met this horrible fate? Oh, and PS: Beheading is unislamic.

Via the Drudge of the blogosphere, Jeff Quinton, this rather disgusting if not surprising news. Notice the allusion to the 3 bodies being those of foreigners. Perhaps the Australians or the French journalists? Which reminds me, I need to get on the murdered hostages update. What are we up to? 35 murdered hostages, since 9/11? Does any one have a running count of how many of those hostages have been beheaded?

The decapitated bodies of three men, their heads strapped to their backs and the corpses put in nylon bags, were found dumped by a roadside north of Baghdad Wednesday, Iraqi police and U.S. officials said.

The bodies were discovered by a group of Iraqi National Guardsmen shortly after dawn as they patrolled near the town of Dujail, 38 miles north of the capital. The U.S. military said initial indications were that the dead men were Arabs.

The development comes amid a sharp surge in violence over the past three days, with at least 150 Iraqis killed in bomb blasts, fighting and other attacks. A car bomb in central Baghdad killed 47 and wounded 114 Tuesday.

Iraqi police said two of the bodies had tattoos written in the Roman alphabet -- one saying "HECER," and the other a letter H. The third body had tattoos written in Arabic script but the words were not Arabic. There were no documents on the corpses.

Two were clothed in jeans and t-shirts and the third was wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt, the U.S. military said.

Dozens of foreigners have been abducted in Iraq in recent months, many of them truck drivers from countries such as Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Kuwait. Several of those hostages have been beheaded after captors' demands were not met.

At least four Westerners are also being held -- two male French journalists and two female aid workers from Italy.

A group in Samarra, just north of Dujail, has claimed to be holding two Australians and two East Asians but has provided no proof. Australia's government has dispatched a special team to investigate.

September 14, 2004

A German news report is about to break claiming that the genocide in Darfur is being helped by Syrian chemical weapons. Perhaps Saddam's missing WMD are being used after all? Just thinking out loud. Via Charles Johnson this really odd news. Note that the source of the story is an Arabic internet site. The credibility of this report is pretty doubtful:

Syria tested chemical weapons on civilians in Sudan's troubled western Darfur region in June and killed dozens of people.

The German daily Die Welt newspaper, in an advance release of its Wednesday edition, citing unnamed western security sources, said that injuries apparently caused by chemical arms were found on the bodies of the victims.

It said that witnesses quoted by an Arabic news website called ILAF in an article on August 2 had said that several frozen bodies arrived suddenly at the "Al-Fashr Hospital" in the Sudanese capital Khartoum in June.

Die Welt said the sources had indicated that the weapons tests were undertaken following a military exercise between Syria and Sudan.

Syrian officers were reported to have met in May with Sudanese military leaders in a Khartoum suburb to discuss the possibility of improving cooperation between their armies.

According to Die Welt, the Syrians had suggested close cooperation on developing chemical weapons, and it was proposed that the arms be tested on the rebel SPLA, the Sudan People's Liberation Army, in the south.

But given that the rebels were involved in peace talks, the newspaper continued, the Sudanese government proposed testing the arms on people in Darfur.

Many apologists for Dan Rather have asserted that the Killian memo *could* have been produced by certain high-end IBM typewriters available in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Possibly. But isn't it empirically verifiable whether or not the Air Force (through which the Air National Guard is funded) bought such typewriters?

I did a search of prime military contracts to see if the US Air Force bought any expensive typewriters in Texas from 1965-1972. The answer? Yes, they did. But the records only show a single procurement from IBM of typewriters during this period. If I am reading the page correctly, the US Air Force did pay IBM between $25-49 thousand for "TYPEWRITERS AND OFFICE TYPE C" in 1966. This is the only large contract between the US Air Force and IBM in Texas for typewriters during a period of time prior to the date of the memo in question.

Unfortunately for Rather apologists, that contract was executed in San Antonio, TX. San Antonio is home to Kelly AFB where the typewriters probably went. Could the typewriters have gone to a Guard unit? Possibly. There is a TANG unit at Kelly, the 149th Fighter Wing. The problem, of course, is that Bush served in the 111th Fighter Wing, located in Houston.

What are the odds:

a) the Air Force bought high-end typewriters from IBM. If you look at what procurement documents are online, they only give a general range for the contract, 25-49k. How expensive were the models in question? Is the IBM Selectric the only model that would produce anything near to this document? How many of these high-end typewriters could be bought with that amount?

b) after procuring the high-end typewriters, they are shipped from San Antonio to Houston. Does anybody out there know the chain of command? Would Killian report to someone in San Antonio? Maybe, but this is a real question that I just don't know.

c) after getting this high-end typewriter, Killian takes the time and effort how to use it. He then begins using it to keep personal notes on. Killians family says he could barely type.

Update: The price for an IBM Selectric Composer was $4,400 in 1966. It was the first year the model was produced. Given that the Air Force spent no more than $49k buying typewriters in Texas from IBM, how many Selectric Composers might have been bought? Eleven. The entire Air Force in Texas could have no more than eleven of these things! To put that into perspective, $4,400 in 1966 was equivalent to $24,535.58 in 2003. So, what are the odds that the Air Force would send a $25k machine to a TANG unit? Especially since there were only (no more than) eleven of them in the state? Sure, we could always come up with a more and more elaborate explanation of how the improbable could have happened--but this is getting ridiculous.

UPDATE II: My bad. IBM did sell the Air Force in Texas "TYPEWRITERS AND OFFICE TYPE Composing Machines" in subsequent years after 1966. None in 1967, but in 1968 they contracted with IBM for between $40 - $120 k for typewriters and other related equipment (presumably dictation machines). In 1968 they spent even more. Again, though, none of this is going to Houston Texas in 1968. A lot of the equipment is for Texarkana (??? no idea what base is even near here), Travis County which is home of the now closed Bergstrom Air Force Base (defunct SAC base), and San Antonio. Similarly, in 1969 several bases bought typewriting equipment, including whatever base is near El Paso--but none near Houston. 1970 produces no results for the Houston area either, but get's specific enough to say the Air Force contracted with IBM to supply typewriters to Borger, TX. You ever hear of 'Borger'? Me either. Fiscal year 1971 (which ends mid 1972) produces no results for Harris County, where Bush's wing was stationed either. So, it is possible that the TANG had a high end IBM Selectric, but still improbable.

So what does the archive search mean?

First, the military keeps pretty detailed records of the equipment they buy. A more thorough search of the archival data reveals that the military keeps records of equipment purchases, even when such purchases are for relatively unimportant Air Force offices (such as the ones in Texarkana or in Borger). There is no record of the Air Force, or any of it's subsidiaries, buying expensive typewriting equipment from IBM for any base near Houston between the years 1965-1972. Is this proof that the Killian documents aren't real? No. This is evidence that simply suggests Killian didn't have the right equipment to superscript th or kernal the lettering.

Second, Ace makes an important observations when speaking of this post:

I don't think his findings are anywhere near conclusive, but if an amateur one-man blogging operation is able to call up and read military procurement contracts, why isn't CBS News able to do so, and thereby actually prove their allegations?

What the hell is going on? Is the legitimate media now claiming for itself a lesser standard of evidence and fact-checking than they demand for one-man amateur internet bloggers?

If that's the case, they might as well come straight out and admit that bloggers are generally more reliable than they are.

I saved the onlined procurement page here for the 1966 fiscal year. The original online procurement acquisition page can be found here. For a description of the database universe, you can download the PDF file here.

Update, again: Allah, the all-knowing, tells me that Killian's secretery had a Selectric, but that she didn't type these memos. So I just wasted the last two hours of my life trying to find out if Killian had a Selectric for nought? I demand those two hours back!! *sigh* I probably would have wasted them anyway.

Another UPDATE, 9/14:Reader MrGrumpyDrawers notes that while Killian's secretary might have had a Selectric " Selectric and a Selectric Composer are (were) two different beasts. The Selectric was a fixed pitch machine - i.e. did not have proportional spacing. The main reason Selectrics were so popular is they did not have a moving carriage that used up a lot of desk space and made a terrible racket at every carriage return. The type ball made them much quieter than a standard typewriter, they were less prone to jam and they made good-looking fixed-pitch documents. The odds that Killian's secretary had access to a high-end Selectric Composer with proportional spacing would have been next to nil." Also, long time blog friend Rum Crook says "I was in the guard after I got out of the regular army, it is beyond credibility to me that they had anything other than a pretty standard ribbon typewriter. hell I left the guard around 92 and they were still using a regular typewriter." So, could Killian's secretary have had a Selectric by 1972? Possibly. The Air Force first started buying them in 1966, so she might have got a hand-me-down by that time. But, did she have the Selectric Composer? Look, if the regular Selectric was priced at near $25k in inflation adjusted dollars then how much did the top of the line model cost? And then what are the odds that in 5 years the Air Force would decide to replace a $25k piece of equipment and then send the 'old junk' down the line to the TANG?

More updates: From a reader Dave:

The TANG should have had a property division which assigned responsibility for all gov’t equipment to an individual, usually an NCOIC (non-commissioned officer in charge). The Property division should have had a “property book” which was a log of all government equipment. The NCOIC would have a ‘hand receipt’ which would be the list, monetary value, serial number and national stock number of each item the NCOIC was responsible for. There were probably several property books depending on the type of equipment – airplane parts would be accounted for separately from office equipment, I would assume.

Excellent idea. Why doesn't Dan Rather send one of his Columbia educated interns down to check this out? Sorry, my bad. That assumes Rather cared.

Is it time to leave Iraq? Yes. Our mission was regime change and making sure no WMD got into the hands of terrorists. Mission accomplished. Leave the nation-building to the Iraqis. If they are worthy of democracy and liberal consensual government, they will pay for it with their own blood. If they are not worthy of it, which I increasingly suspect, they will submit to authoritarianism and be glad to move on with their own business. What do we have to prove there now? We came, we saw, we kicked their asses.

I understand the long-term strategic vision of a democratic Iraq in the middle of a sea of hate and oppression. I think it's a wonderful notion to think of a kind of reverse domino effect. I want to believe it. I am just not sure that Muslim societies are capable of the kind of tolerance necessary for a democracy to work.

Let's take a look at Muslim 'democracies'.

-Pakistan. No longer democratic. Fine with me. Look at what their democracy produced: nuclear weapons and transfers of nuclear plans to rogue nations (such as North Korea and Libya), support for the Taliban, support for jihad against India, madrassas that produced jihadis sent around the world, etc. It seems to me that our national interests are better served by the present non-democratic Pakistan.

-Indonesia. Quasi-democratic. Perhaps the closest thing to a democracy you can expect out of the Muslim world, but not truly democratic. The former President of Indonesia has a long record of anti-Semitism and wacky conspiracy theories. Indonesia has long had authoritarianism with only the semblance of democratic institutions. Could it evolve into a democracy? Maybe, but see Pakistan as an example of an Islamic democracy. Do we really want that?

-Turkey. Turkey is not truly democratic, but is a quasi-democracy. Turkey was forced into becoming a secular state by a dictator, Ataturk. There is forced seperation of church and state in Turkey. If Turks were given the choice, would they change their constitution and adopt sharia? Quite possibly. Lucky for us the Turkish army periodically intervenes in elections. Turkey is an ally--and not the most faithful one at that--precisely because it's elites are Western oriented secularists.

-Iran. Iran claims to be a democracy, but I don't think any of my readers are buying that. Could they be? Well, many educated Persians in the diaspora certainly think that Iran was headed toward democracy before the Shah was ousted. But then again, think of how that path developed. The Shah forced Iran into a forward looking progressive state. Athoritarianism produced a segment of society that was secular.

So, tell me where I'm wrong. Is our present policy wise? Can we really transform Iraq into a semi-stable quasi-democratic state? Increasingly I fear that we cannot. Increasingly I fear that right-leaning bloggers have entered a state of denial--that we must be for the present Iraq policy (in some modified form or another) because the other side is against it. Increasingly I fear that I have been one of those bloggers. I have been cheerleading a policy which may not work. I have been cheerleading a pipe-dream: Arab democracy.

Do I believe with 100% certainty that we should cut and run? No. Call it 40% of me says to leave the mess to the Iraqis. 40% says to stay the course. 20% says I'm full of crap and I don't know either way.

If the Arab world wants democracy so bad let us see them build it themselves. Liberty may be ordained to man as a right given by God, but a right given is not the same as a right appreciated. We won our liberty through the blood and sweat of our forefathers. But it was OUR BLOOD and OUR SWEAT. Consensual government is a precious pearl. Never cast your pearl before swine.

Tell me that I'm wrong. I hope I am.

UPDATE: Some good comments. Check out my response.

UPDATE: Check out the responses by those who sent sandcrawler tracks below (the fatwas). Some good thoughts and rejoinders. It also earns you a place on the blogroll.

Early to bed, early to rise--makes a blog healthy, wealthy, and wise. Yes, I'm turning this into a regular feature. Why? Cause I said so!! Just looking for a way to refer my readers to good posts. You think of a better way to do it just let me know. Also, if I'm on your blogroll and you are not on mine, please just drop me a line so I can fix that......So, what's for breakfast Doc?

Two Australians have reportedly been kidnapped in Iraq and threatened with execution.

A statement, purportedly from the militant Islamic Secret Army, gave the Federal Government a 24-hour deadline to pull its troops out of Iraq.

Handed out in the Sunni Muslim insurgent bastion of Samarra, the statement claimed the Australians and two men from east Asia had been kidnapped.

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said: "We are moving heaven and earth to get more information".

The first reports of the kidnapping emerged in Australia about 10.30pm (SA time).

The statement from the so-called Horror Brigades read: "One of our brave brigades ambushed civilian cars belonging to the American army on the motorway from Baghdad to (the main northern city of) Mosul.

"It took four prisoners, two Australians and two east Asian nationals who were working as security contractors for important people," it said. "We tell the infidels of Australia that they have 24 hours to leave Iraq or the two Australians will be killed without a second chance."

Australia took part in last year's US-led move into Iraq and still has 850 troops in the country.

"The (Australian) Prime Minister must announce the withdrawal personally if he is concerned about his two citizens," the statement said.

Al-Qaida-linked militants have posted a videotape on a Web site purportedly showing a kidnapped Turkish driver's beheading.

The video has the victim identifying himself as one of the Turkish contractors kidnapped last month. He speaks in Turkish with Arabic subtitles, describing his job transporting goods to an American military base in Mosul.

After that, the picture fades to a black screen with a title reading "the execution," followed by warnings from masked, armed militants to foreign drivers and grisly footage of the beheading.

The video was digitally dated August 17th. It was posted on the Web site used by a a group headed by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Updates later.

UPDATE: The victim's name is Durmus Kumdereli. He was killed last month. What is especially odd about this is that his companion, Mustafa Koksal, was released a month ago. Why would they let one go and kill the other one?

I do not recommend that you click to the site who's URL you see in the vidcap. It is a site that publishes gruesome images as well as pornography--seemingly for their prurient interests. Many of us believe that the images, such as the one you see above, should be seen so that we understand the brutality of our enemies. This is a war against a kind of savagery that many think no longer exists. Remember what these bastards are capable of.

12:18 Charles talks about the probability that documents are real. Slim to none. Talks about his superimposing experiment which can be found here. Virtually identical to modern Word document. A full list of Charles' posts can be found here. This flash movie also overlays a Word created document making the same point, but is uses a different font. (via Commisar who got it from Dudemasicus)

12:48 Nope, it's Scott Ott. He called in. Funny. He's plugging his e-mail post. Is Scott Ott that much of a whore to plug his blog on national radio? Yes. Dumb question. Kudos for your whorishness!!

12:50 Now it's John Fund. Talking about the potential for lawsuits in the upcoming election. Dem lawyers waiting to file lawsuits in keys states. Man, I am not looking forward to the day after the election. I usually stay up late. Why do I have the feeling that it will be weeks or months before all the lawsuits are settled? Thanks a lot Al Gore, you prick.

12:56 Q: What is the deal with the bumper music? Come on, Sheila-E???

1:11 Kerry carried around a hat that belonged to a CIA agent he dropped off in Cambodia? Never heard that one. Pretty freaking funny since he's never been to Cambodia.

1:52 Interesting, interesting, very interesting...but now I've lost interest.

September 11, 2004

This is a repost from Aug. 30. I notice that the e-mail that the photo comes from is still making the rounds. I for one, will never forget. It was a day that changed my entire worldview. A day that woke me up from the pleasant slumber where I dreamed of the spread of love and liberalism to the farthest corner of the globe. Now I am awake. Where I was is not important. What is important is where I am now.

The proud warriors of Baker Company wanted to do something to pay tribute To our fallen comrades. So since we are part of the only Marine Infantry Battalion left in Iraq the one way that we could think of doing that is By taking a picture of Baker Company saying the way we feel. It would be awesome if you could find a way to share this with our fellow countrymen. I was wondering if there was any way to get this into your papers to let the world know that "WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN" and are proud to serve our country." Semper Fi
1stSgt Dave Jobe

The attached photo was forwarded from one of the last U.S. Marine companies in Iraq. They would like to have it passed to as many people as possible, to let the folks back home know that they remember why they're there and that they remember those who've been lost.

The man named in a disputed memo as exerting pressure to "sugarcoat" George W. Bush's military record left the Texas Air National Guard a year and a half before the memo supposedly was written, his service record shows.

An order obtained by The Dallas Morning News shows that Col. Walter "Buck" Staudt was honorably discharged March 1, 1972. CBS News reported this week that a memo in which Staudt was described as interfering with officers' negative evaluations of the future president's service was dated Aug. 18, 1973.

From what we've learned, Staudt remained very active after he retired," the staffer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "He was a very bullying type, and that could have continued."

Could have? And the Lakers could have won the championship game last year, but they didn't.

In the disputed memo, Killian supposedly wrote "(another officer) gave me a message today from group regarding Bush's (evaluation) and Staudt is pushing to sugarcoat it."

It continues: "Austin is not happy either."

The CBS staffer said the memo appears to recognize that Staudt has retired, since it differentiates between his displeasure and that of Austin, where he served his final Guard stint.

But another Texas Air National Guard official who served in that period said the memo appears to wrongly associate Staudt with his group command in Houston, and — based on that mistake — the memo distinguishes his views from that of the Austin Guard.

Retired Col. Earl Lively, director of Air National Guard operations for the state headquarters during 1972 and 1973, said Staudt "wasn't on the scene" after retirement, and that CBS' remote-bullying thesis makes no sense.

"He couldn't bully them. He wasn't in the Guard," Lively said. "He couldn't affect their promotions. Once you're gone from the Guard, you don't have any authority."

Haven't checked other blog reaction to this yet or if this is news to people or not.

This is a good sign. Why? Because it confirms what Rumsfield and co. have been saying: the Iraqis are slowly becoming the frontline in the war on the insurgency. The terrorists feel the threat is now coming from the interim government as much as they do from the Coalition. Let's just hope these guys make it out alive. Reuters:

An Iraqi rebel group has seized four Iraqi policemen in Najaf and threatened to kill them unless police agree to stop hunting insurgents and pressuring rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, Al Jazeera television said Friday.

"They accused them (police) of pursuing the Mujahideen (fighters) and harassing Moqtada al-Sadr. They demanded a stop to these practices and a statement to this effect within 72 hours, or they will kill the hostages," it said, showing video images of the policemen sent to the channel.

Al Jazeera said the kidnappers called themselves the "Joint Forces to Stop Agents and Spies," a previously unknown group.

In somewhat related news, three Lebanese were shot dead today in Baghdad. Terrorism releated? Probably not say officials. It is more likely that it was a robbery gone bad.

Forget Dan Rather, Tom Harkin is the real slimeball here. Yesterday the old media at CNN led footage of Tom Harkin demanding an investigation into George W. Bush's alleged failure to obey a direct command to report for a physical and some media continued the story today:

"Character counts, especially in the president of the United States," Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said at DNC headquarters.

"If the president lies about this, he could lie about how we got into Iraq," he added....

"There's a difference here, there's a real difference here," Harkin said. "There's documents to back up John Kerry. The documents do not back up George W. Bush."

The Vietnam War was not the real issue, Harkin said. The real issue, he said, was that Bush has continued to lie about his service during recent interviews.

"The president has repeatedly insisted he did not receive any special treatment to get into the (Texas Air National) Guard. We now know this isn't true."

"This is not about whether George W. Bush met his commitment, served his country 30 years ago," he said. "This isn't about Vietnam. ...

"This is about George Bush sitting in the Oval Office telling Tim Russert, quote, 'I did my duty.'

"We now know this was not true. And the president also knows, and knew, this is not true."....

"He made it an issue by not being truthful about whether he did his duty for America, (and) he made it an issue by falsely claiming all of his records had been released." ....

"These are not allegations. These are not speculations. These are hard, cold facts," Harkin said. "And the president, and only the president, can clear it up."

This is an outrageous statement now that we know the reports that he 'violated a direct order' are based on what are probably forged documents? I demand an apology from this man. Where is the accountability out there? Where are you good Iowans? Don't let Harkin get away with this.

Jane's NY Post column was cut for this one from John Podhoretz which describes yesterday's big blog event: the Fisking of CBS:

THE populist revolu tion against the so- called mainstream media continues. Yesterday, the citizen journalists who produce blogs on the Internet — and their engaged readers — engaged in the wholesale exposure of what appears to be a presidential-year dirty trick against George W. Bush.

What the bloggers and their audiences did was call into profound question the authenticity of four documents proudly trumpeted by CBS News in a much-heralded investigative report on Wednesday night's edition of "60 Minutes" about the president's National Guard service in the early 1970s.

Er, can I just add that I was the blogger who called for some foot to brake action on yesterday's events. Sorry. My bad.

The Minneapolis lawyers who run powerlineblog.com were on the case early. Two of the blog's readers directed their attention to a note left on an Internet bulletin board on the freerepublic.com Web site — the 47th posting on the topic there.

Post No. 47 pointed out that there was something off about these documents from the 1970s: The spacing between the letters and the words was proportional, and only a few IBM electric typewriters could achieve that effect back then.

From there it was off to the races. Once anyone who had had experience writing and typing in the 1970s began examining the documents, it was impossible not to see some weird anachronisms that suggested they had been crafted not on a 1970s typewriter, but using Microsoft Word.

Charles Johnson, who runs the wonderful littlegreenfootballs.com, simply typed one of the memos over using Microsoft Word's New Times Roman font and, lo and behold, the document came out exactly identical to the one on the CBS site, down to the letter spacing.

What was awesome about Charles' simple experiment was that I heard Brit Hume say one of his producers replicated it with the same result. The power of LGF knows know bounds. All hail Charles Johnson and his bicycle which made it all possible!

By 3 o'clock, the very careful and honest Jim Geraghty, who produces invaluable material every day on nationalreview.com's Kerry Spot, was saying flatly, "CBS had better have one heck of a defense for this."

An 86-year-old Nazi death squad commander went on trial in Munich yesterday, accused of the slaughter of 164 Slovak villagers in what could turn out to be the last war crimes trial from the second world war.
Ladislav Niznansky is accused of heading the Slovak section of the Edelweiss unit, which hunted partisans and Jews in Czechoslovakia after Germany crushed an uprising against its puppet government.

Mr Niznansky is accused of taking part in the massacre of 146 people in two Slovakian villages in 1945 and later ordering the execution of 18 Jews, some of them children, who were discovered hiding nearby.

Can I just put a word in for my own defense? I put forth a general rule about hypothesis testing that the null hypothesis should be maintained unless there is a 95% probablity that the nullification is accurate. In other words, you maintain the status quo unless you are quite positive about the results of your hypothesis testing. In this case, the status quo was that the documents were authenitic. Therefore, it is up to those who wish to disprove this to make more than a compelling case, but to make an overwhelming case. The reason? Remember cold fusion? In that experiment there was some evidence that cold fusion was happening. However, it later turned out to be wrong. Evidence can always be found to maintain a theoritical proposition, what you need to turn a proposition into a theory is overwhelming evidence. And lots of it! Because in science we general assume the greater risk is in saying that we have proven a theory when we have not. Scientists are conservative by nature.

Kuhn, in his famous book, describe the process of scientific revolution as a process by which old paradigms are thrown out and new ones are brought in. I believe we have just witnessed a major paradigm shift. It is the deathknell of the old media, and the ringing in of something completely different. I always looked at my blog as a way of putting out ideas, but that I should have a lot of evidence before putting out anything radically new. The blogosphere was alive today with what seemed like conspiritorial statements, but were really a conversation. The conversation started with a question, leading to more questions, and then we pulled in experts who seemed to concur with many initial suspicions. I still maintain that many of the early bloggers on this jumped the gun in declaring a slam dunk victory, but it seems that most were simply interested in the conversation. Forget the swiftie thing, it took us weeks to get the mainstream press in on the story. This...this took a matter of hours. We are the press now.

You know what, I was there the day the blogosphere changed the news media. That one guy who put in the research--I know that guy. That guy e-mails me saucy videos. The other guy--man, I knew that guy back in the day bro. He links me, man. He's my homie, essay! That's what I feel like. I was there man. I was there.

This is a photo of Wonkette with Steve the Llama Beetcher (must be said in faux Scottish accent) at the American Political Science Association meeting in Chicago last week. If you look closely, though, you might notice Steve wearing a name tag that says Dr. Rusty Shackleford . The thing is, Wonkette looks a lot like my wife. Seriously. I'm happy to report, though, that they don't share the same penchant for using the phrase 'anal sex'.

Georgy Farniyev, pictured below next to a terrorist who stands on a pressure device hooked to a bomb set to go off if he removes his foot, tells his story of what happened in Beslan. Story in extended entry.

In a terrifying videotape, 10-year-old Georgy Farniyev sat near a bomb, his hands behind his head and his face a mask of misery. He looked certain to die, but survived through luck, self-possession beyond his years and enough grit to pull shrapnel out of his own arm.

On Thursday, Georgy told The Associated Press of his ordeal from the back of an ambulance in the North Ossetian capital before taking a flight to Moscow, where he will be treated for his wounds.

Only last week, Georgy was lined up with classmates and their parents at the No. 1 School in his home town of Beslan, ready for the first day of school. Then gunmen began shooting in the air, herding some 1,200 children and adults into the gymnasium and starting a siege that would end with 326 dead.

Georgy was with his aunt Irina and 6-year-old cousin, Elbrus. Both also survived with injuries.

"They told us to 'sit tight and if you scream we will kill 20 children.' One terrorist had 20 children that were killed, and because of that they came to kill us," Georgy told the AP.

There was not much water to drink, and only a few people were allowed to go to the bathroom during the two-day siege, Georgy said.

"Children, women and even men were fainting. They were not giving us water," said Georgy, who appeared emotionally numb - his thoughts and words swerving back and forth in time as he remembered his ordeal.

Some of the terrorists were bearded, but one was clean-shaven, Georgy said. At least two of the militants were women, and Georgy said they wore what looked like money pouches - "but there was no money, only explosives."

After the siege began Sept. 1, the militants placed bombs around the gym floor and in the basketball hoops.

On the second day of the standoff, Georgy said the militants killed some adults and one girl - shooting one victim in front of the hostages in the gym, but taking others away and killing them elsewhere.

On the videotape, apparently taken by the militants, Georgy sat close to the side of the gym where some of the explosives were concentrated. Other survivors said he likely would have died there - the bombs went off in the chaos that ended the standoff on Sept. 3.

Georgy said he had been directly on a square-shaped explosive.

"One of the mines was right under us," he said. "There were a lot of explosives, grenades, bombs."

But at one point Georgy was told to move, and it apparently saved his life.

"When they started to shoot and the bomb went off, it didn't do anything to me, not even a scratch," he said. "There was shooting, grenades, bombs."

When the explosions began, Georgy rushed from the gym to a nearby room, then to a cafeteria where he was hit by shrapnel in his right knee and upper left arm. He limped into the kitchen and hid in a closet.

Georgy pulled the shrapnel from his arm and cleaned it with water, but was unable to remove the shrapnel from his knee. He said he found a telephone and tried to call for help, but it was broken.

A soldier later approached his hiding place and asked, "Are there any more Chechens?"

"I said 'No,"' Georgy said. Someone then took his hand, and he was passed out a window and into a vehicle to be taken to safety.

Ten of the terrorists who committed mass-murder in Beslan have been identified by Russian security forces. AP: Six came from Chechnya, where insurgents have been battling Kremlin forces for five years. The other four came from Ingushetia, a republic neighboring Chechnya that saw brazen coordinated attacks against police in June.Other reports suggest that at least nine more are Arabs.

Yissocharov outlined the general consensus among Hamas leadership he had interviewed for the book: “The Israeli left-wing and your ‘peace-camp’ are what ultimately encouraged us to continue to carry out suicide bombings. We tried, through our attacks, to create fragmentation and dissention within Israeli society, and the left-wing encouraged us in that regard. When we heard about the ‘Pilot’s Letter,’ the refuse-niks and the elite soldiers refusing to serve [in Judea, Samaria and Gaza –ed.] it strengthened our confidence in the effectiveness of the suicide bomber. The disengagement from Gaza is proof of our victory. The fact that Sharon is willing to withdraw unconditionally is basically equivalent to raising a white flag and retreating. Only by force are we able to teach the other side what to do.”

Now imagine the photo of Paul Johnson again. You know nothing of him, nothing of the events surrounding his death. You are also a Muslim. Under the photo is the following caption:

Enemy of Islam killed for his role in the murder of Muslims by Apache helicopters.
Would that make you feel differently about his death?

Now imagine the photo of Abdulaziz al-Moqrin again. You know nothing of him, nothing of the events surrounding his death. You are also a Muslim. Under the photo is the following caption:

Holy warrior murdered by Imperialist forces.

Would that make you feel differently about his death?

Context makes a world of difference in your emotional response to the same events. Context is intimately connected to the words we use. This is why propaganda is so important if we wish to win the war on terror. We must stop the enemy propaganda machine. For another example of this, check out the picture in this post. This is what Arabs see everyday on TV. No wonder they hate us.

So, do I really believe that Noam Chomsky is responsible for Mass Murder? Again, from that earlier post:

No. Noam Chomsky is used here as a symbol of a discourse. This is a discourse, a way of speaking, in which terms such as imperialism, neo-colonialism, and crusaderism are used to describe America to the rest of the world. It is a discourse which suggests that Israel is a colonial puppet of America in the Middle East. It is a discourse which suggests that the Middle East is under attack from America. It is the discourse that is to blame.

Noam Chomsky is only to blame for that portion of the discourse which he propogates by the language he uses. The discoure is much larger than Noam Chomsky.

Almost half of all Saudis said in a poll conducted last year that they have a favorable view of Osama bin Laden's sermons and rhetoric

Osama bin Laden and the discourses of the Left have many differences. But in the language they use to describe the world, we find striking similarities. Take out all the stuff about Allah, and you find that the differences become relatively meaningless.

Our nation [ed note: umma meaning the collective of Muslims and Muslim countries] has been tasting this humiliation and contempt for more than 80 years.

Its sons are being killed, its blood is being shed, its holy places are being attacked, and it is not being ruled according to what God has decreed.

Secular translation: Muslim nations are under attack by imperialist forces and suffer under the brutal hand of colonialism.

See Chomsky's view of US colonialism here. Are there major differences in the language they use?

How brutal is the US, according to bin Laden?
One million Iraqi children have thus far died in Iraq although they did not do anything wrong.
Why did they die? The cause is the US.

Tell me how Noam Chomsky fundamentally disagrees with this? Here is his view of who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq.

On the Palestinian question? Bin Laden:

Israeli tanks and tracked vehicles also enter to wreak havoc in Palestine, in Jenin, Ramallah, Rafah, Beit Jala, and other Islamic areas and we hear no voices raised or moves made.

An interview posted at "USCRUSADE" with Chomsky. Are there major differences in outlook?

Now, suppose all the images you see of dead terrorists in Palestine are juxtaposed with the words used by Chomsky or by Islamic fundamentalists like bin Laden. Would you agree with this statement from bin Laden?

The least that one can describe these people [Americans] is that they are morally depraved.

They champion falsehood, support the butcher against the victim, the oppressor against the innocent child.

May God mete them the punishment they deserve.

If the world was as the Left described it, wouldn't it be just to attack America?

In WWII the US routinely bombed factories engaged in the production of war material. This was just.

If the Saudi government is a tool of American Imperialism, if helicopters are used by that government to oppress Muslims, if Paul Johnson was working for the forces of imperialism to oppress Muslims, then why should his death be seen as anything more than just recompense? Here are the words of the terrorists who killed Paul Johnson, as posted at Talk Left:

This infidel [Paul Johnson] received his fair punishment in this world before moving to the other world. He got to taste some of what the Muslims suffered from the Apache American helicopters that grilled them with their fire flames, embers, and missiles. The American infidel was one of four people in charge of the maintenance and system development of those helicopters.

If this is your worldview, if these are the words you use to describe the world, at best you will say you disagree with the means, but not necessarily the ends. You will claim that Paul Johnson's death was tragic, but no more tragic than that of Abdulaziz al-Moqrin.

From bin Laden:
As for the United States, I tell it and its people these few words: I swear by Almighty God who raised the heavens without pillars that neither the United States nor he who lives in the United States will enjoy security before we can see it as a reality in Palestine and before all the infidel armies leave the land of Mohammed

The Left is in fundamental agreement with bin Laden. The US is an imperialist force. The US is the great oppressor of our age.

The discourse runs deeper, though. Much deeper. Describing the US as an Imperialist aggressor permeates all aspects of Muslim discourse. It is prominent even in quarters that reject bin Ladenism. From an article in Islam-Online, on the recent announcement to launch another Islamic satellite station:

The scholar said the project is part of efforts to counter the "colonial war" against Muslims, bearing in mind its economic, social, military and religious repercussions.

For an even deeper account of the narrative used by both the Left and Terrorist sympathizers, scan this website. Do you think it a mere coincidence that an image [see left column] of a Middle Eastern man, sword in hand, is stomping on an American flag is right next to a promotion for Michael Moore's new movie?

The reason that so many Leftist intellectuals are cited is because there is a community forged when the same words are used to describe the same events. Even when one rejects terrorism as an unjust means, the language which shapes the context of conflict in the Middle East is the same. There is a reason Noam Chomsky is routinely cited as a source of authority for those that oppose the US presence in the Middle East. It is the same reason why Americans find it difficult to gain cooperation from the Iraqi population, or that Saudi Arabia finds in gaining the cooperation of it's own citizens. There is a shared view, between the Left and between terrorist sympathizers, of the Americans as oppressors. This view is the product of images plus a dialogue that describes those images in such a way as to produce an emotional response akin to what I felt when I saw what happened to Paul Johnson.

The Saudi government's intense public relations campaign to discourage people from supporting extremists isn't swaying some of its citizens, who still consider the militants heroes despite appeals from Muslim religious leaders.

But how can the Saudi government simultaneously try to discourage support for barbarisms against Americans while simutaneously propogating a discourse that describes the American occupation of Iraq as leading to the death of 13,000 innocent civillians? If America is guilty as charged, if America is the cause, then why not fight Americans wherever they may be found?

The words we use matter. The words we use create context. Context matters.

The next time you hear an academic use words like colonialism or imperialsm, the next time you hear an intellectual use words that suggest America as the cause of so much suffering in the world, the next time a Leftist speaks of the death of children at the hands of America, don't let them go unchallenged. Remind them of the consequences of their words.

Loose lips may not always sink ships, but they do create the context in which it becomes easier to justify sinking ships.

The number two figure in Al Qaeda (search) said U.S. forces have only limited movement in Afghanistan, Reuters reported.

Al-Zawahri was wearing a white turban with a machine gun at his side and spoke for several minutes in the videotape, Reuters reported.

It is largely believed that Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian doctor, is the brains behind the terror network.

Do I believe we are losing in Afghanistan? No, not on your life. But how can we win the minds and hearts of the Middle East as long as you have al Jazeera running stories like this? The image below is what Arabs see everyday. If you read this stuff and saw these images you would hate us too. Why do you think Noam Chomsky hates America?

You can't make this stuff up. Really. The funny part? He gaver her the money that she used to take the contract out on him. Apparently it was too little. Mosnews:

A 23-year-old former Miss Moscow contestant has avoided a prison sentence for ordering a contract hit by marrying her intended victim...

After a bust up with boyfriend Igor Lantsov, a wealthy Moscow businessman, Anastasia Nasinovskaya contacted an old friend and offered $15,000, of Lantsov’s money, to make their separation permanent.

The relationship reached breaking point in December of last year when Lantsov demanded Nasinovskaya return a brand new BMW.

“I spent a half a million dollars on her in the six months we lived together,” Lantsov told a police investigator, Izvestia reported. “It’s pure impudence: ordering a hit on me with my own money!”

She offered Ivan Sentyurin $10,000 up front, with an extra $5,000 after he produced evidence of the contract killing. Sentyurin, however, went straight to the police who set up a ‘sting’ when the would-be hitman went to collect his second payment.

In an apparent change of heart by Lantsov, however, the businessman hired a top lawyer to defend his ex and even proposed.

“Apparently his feelings were stronger than the insult of having a contract put on his life,” the police spokesman said.

As a result of their wedding the court gave Nasinovskaya a five-year suspended sentence at the end of August, the Moskovsky Komsomolets tabloid wrote.

And of course, the trouble all started because poor Ms. Nasinovskaya was too cheap to pay the going rate. From the Moscow Times

Lantsov said the $10,000 advance came from his own pocket. "She rudely took it from an envelope, and when I tried to stop her, she made a face as if I had insulted her terribly and slammed the door," he told Izvestia. "It's pure impudence: ordering a hit on me with my own money!"

The $10,000 may have been too little, as Sentyurin went straight to the police.

In the absence of more compelling evidence, I would suggest the right-leaning bloggers lay off this forged documents business. Since we now have a witness to 'W' being in Bama, what is the point? Please stop. You're making us look like a bunch of barking-moonbats. The problem with conspiracy theories is that they usually turn out to be false. Usually. Since they are usually false it seems safe to me to put the burden of proof on those trying to prove the conspiracy.

UPDATE: Eating crow? I might be, soon. Bill at INDC and then the mainstream press (via Curbside Prophet) on the case. But, I would still warn readers of the possible methodology problem here. The first rule of hypothesis testing is to accept the status quo until the level of proof is very high. In social science statistice, we generally put that standard of proof at around 95% probability before we can accept the hypothesis (actually, until we can reject the null hypothesis). While we are not talking about quantifiable data here, the fact that there are alternative explanations still does not give me reason to accept the hypothesis that the documents are forged. Update within an update: Bill at INDC now says his expert is 90% certain. That is getting pretty close to the threshold of 'proof'.

The real story here, though, may be that the blogosphere has forced the mainstream press into investigating the allegation. And, as the left has always maintained, it is the seriousness of the allegation, not the facts, that are important. (/sarcasm)

PS-Please follow Updates at Allah's and at NRO. There is plenty of evidence that this could have been produced in 1972. Again, since there are reasonable explanations other than a forged-document conspiracy it is safe to put the burden of proof on those who cry foul. This is a basic methodological assumption.

From the Religion of Irony comes this op-ed out the Arabic Dar al Hayat. The gist of the op-ed is that murdering hostages is not justified. Great, but notice the contrast between say Paul or Peter or Buddha, who spread their faith through persuasion and Muhammed who used coersion to spread Islam.

There is an undisputed history, from which I will choose what was written back then, and was saved until today.

A military expedition was sent to Syria, in order to convert its people to Islam. [there is no condemnation of this in the op-ed] All the members of the mission were killed, except for 14 men and their commander. Also, Al Harith bin Omeir Al Azdi was sent to Hercules in order to convert him to Islam; but Sharhabil bin Omar Al Ghassani killed him on the way.

The Arab Prophet worried about the enemies who were waiting to kill the Muslims, [notice the spin here: Muhammed sends an army to force people to become Muslims, then the people who are defending themselves are somehow to blame for defending themselves] so he sent an army of 3,000 men, and told them: "do not backstab, do not get carried away, do not kill an infant or a woman, nor an old man, nor a hermit; do not harm palm trees, do not cut tress, and do not demolish constructions…" [thank you Muhammad, glad to know you just want to force us to convert to your religion, not kill our women, peas be upon your name]

These clear commandments were repeated by Abu Bakr Al Siddiq, who added to it, prior to sending the expedition of Osama bin Zaid, in the first of Apostasy Wars (unlike in Christianity and Judaism, apostasy is punishable by death in Islam). [that was the author's note, not mine. Get it dumbass multiculturalists? In Islam they kill you for leaving the faith. Once again, you leave you die.] He told the Muslim soldiers: "do not betray, do not get carried away, do not backstab, do not disfigure, do not kill an infant, nor the old; do not kill a woman, do not harm a palm tree or burn it. Do not cut a fruitful tree; do not slaughter a sheep, cow, or camel, except for food. You will encounter hermits on your way; let them be, and let them pursue their dedications…" [again, thank you Muhammed, peas be upon your name, for only killing me for leaving your faith]

These two commandments were issued when Islam was fighting for its existence. [here is the theologic justification as discussed below. The violence of the period is the exception, rather than the rule] Had Muslims lost the Apostasy Wars [er, and invading Syria to forcibly convert them was about Apostasy?], Islam or Muslims would not have survived. Nevertheless, there is a clear recommendation against the killing of children, the women, and the elderly, and even against backstabbing and disfiguring dead bodies. [Good, thank you.]

Today, there are 2.1 billion Muslims around the world. Islam's existence is no longer in danger. If each man had his own humanitarian conviction, he would not accept the killing of a child or a woman (a non-combatant in the language of our age); [I agree] the Muslim has an additional deterrent, which comes in the form of the commandments of the Prophet and his Wise Caliphs.

The Covenant between Omar Ibn Al Khattab and the people of Jerusalem, preceded the four Geneva Conventions and its two protocols by 1,400 years; nevertheless, the Covenant was framed to protect the lives and rights of civilians in wartime.

We all know that Omar declined the invitation of Patriarch Sophronius to pray with him in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Doomsday Church), saying that if he knelt to pray in the church, the Muslims would want to commemorate the event by erecting a mosque there, and that would mean that they would have to demolish the Holy Sepulchre. Instead, Omar went to pray at a little distance from the church, where a mosque was built in commemoration of the Caliph. Omar also gave the people of Jerusalem what is known by the Covenant of Omar, which stipulates:

"This is an assurance of peace and protection given by the servant of Allah Omar, Commander of the Believers to the people of Ilia' (Jerusalem). He gave them an assurance of protection for their lives, property, church and crosses as well as the sick and healthy and all its religious community.

Their churches shall not be occupied, demolished nor taken away wholly or in part. None of their crosses nor property shall be seized. They shall not be coerced in their religion nor shall any of them be injured. None of the Jews shall reside with them in Ilia'.

The people of Ilia' shall pay Jizia tax (poll tax on free non-Muslims living under Muslim rule) as inhabitants of cities do. They shall evict all Romans and thieves. [What the author fails to mention is that for the next 1000 years, Christians were then forced into second-class citizenship. They were not allowed to proseletyze, which is a central tenant of their faith. Muslims who tried to convert were executed. And throughout the Arab world pograms and mass murder against Christians and Jews was a sporadic if not common occurence.]

There's more of this in the op-ed, which is generally good in that it condemns the attrocity at Beslan. But it seems to me that Christians or Buddhist and Muslims have two different sets of theologic problems to deal with. The Christian or Buddhist is given the command to do no violence, yet in the face of so many evils in the world violence is often the only way to prevent even greater violence. So, the Christian or Buddhist must somehow find justification for doing violence in order to protect the innocent from the unenlightened. On the other hand Islam explicitly condones violence as a means of both spreading the faith and as a means of punishment. The thoelogical problem for Muslims, then, seems to be quite different than that of Christians. For in the face of the command to do violence the good Muslim understands that violence is often sickening and immoral. So, Muslims must find ways around the command to kill the non-monotheist. Is it possible for Muslim societies to become less violent? Of course, but it takes a great deal of theologic sophisticism to overcome the obvious: Muhammed was a violent man himself.

The United States declared on Thursday genocide has occurred in Sudan's Darfur region and blamed the Khartoum government and Arab militias for the crisis that has driven more than a million people from their homes.

"We concluded that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility and genocide may still be occurring," Secretary of State Colin Powell said in testimony prepared for delivery to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Now can you guys just shut the hell up? Of course, over at the DU there will be whining that the guy is a NASCAR fan, which is code for bigot-segregationist-homophobe who wants to starve children and force women back into using coat-hangers. USA Today, via Kevin Aylward:

A retired Alabama Air National Guard officer said Friday that he remembers George Bush showing up for duty in Alabama in 1972, reading safety magazines and flight manuals in an office as he performed his weekend obligations.
"I saw him each drill period," retired Lt. Col. John "Bill" Calhoun said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from Daytona Beach, Fla., where he is preparing to watch this weekend's big NASCAR race.

"He was very aggressive about doing his duty there. He never complained about it. ... He was very dedicated to what he was doing in the Guard. He showed up on time and he left at the end of the day."

PS-Yesterday I saw a representative of Texans for Truth make the following challenge on the Chris Matthews show, (quote from memory) "We challenge the Bush administration to produce one person who recalls George W. serving in the Alabama Air National Guard." Um, okay, done. Now what? Balloon-juice reveals who this group really is.

Via Captain Ed who continues to ignore my brilliant expose on the real Kitty Kelley comes the news that the only source for the outrageous allegation the George W. Bush did coke at Camp David, his estranged ex-sister-in-law Sharon Bush, denies the story. I smell libel suit:

But Sharon Bush, who is divorced from the president's brother Neil, said in a statement: "I categorically deny that I ever told Kitty Kelley that George W. Bush used cocaine at Camp David or that I ever saw him use cocaine at Camp David. When Kitty Kelley raised drug use at Camp David, I responded by saying something along the lines of, 'Who would say such a thing?'

PS-I can already hear the DU posts about 'payoff', 'bribery', and 'threats'.....

Holy schneike. This is really worrisome. I mean, imagine what these guys could do if they filled a Volvo with explosives. Safe, boxy, deadly. Via Robert Spencer this article which Robert graciously translates:

The police now publicly admit what many Scandinavians have known for a long time: They no longer control the situation in the nations's third largest city. It is effectively ruled by violent gangs of Muslim immigrants.

Simon, an Australian by birth, is doing full coverage. He also has a blog roundup and reaction. Excellent resource. Might I be so bold to remind you that one of the convicted Bali bombers which killed 202, including 88 Australians, was recently seen in a coffee shop with his Indonesian jailor? That is called "getting tough on terrorists" I guess in that part of the world. Oh, and when they indicted another member of Jemaah Islamiyah last week for his part in the Bali bombing, it caused a riot. VOA:

"Naturally enough, our suspicion turns to Jemaah Islamiyah," he said. "We had some advice a few days ago of possible terrorist attack in Jakarta focusing on Western-style hotels. And we changed our travel advisory to take that into account but we didn't have any information on a specific attack on the Australian Embassy at this time."

September 08, 2004

If you need just one reason, check out Votergasm. Notice that the 'Trunk' seems to correspond to hot while the 'Ass' seems to correspond with not. Mostly PG-13 site, with the exception of the cartoons. Via Winds of Change.

PS-Can someone forward this to my wife?

1. Citizen: I pledge to withhold sex from non-voters for the week following the election.
2. Patriot: I pledge to have sex with a voter on election night and withhold sex from non-voters for the week following the election.
3. American Hero: I pledge to have sex with a voter on election night and withhold sex from non-voters for the next four years.

File under: eating crow. When it was first revealed that Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun was abducted I was among a number of notable bloggers (I'm also looking at you Spoons) who said there was something fishy about this. I publicly apologize for casting dispersions on Cpl Hassoun's version of the story. I was completely wrong. I should not have jumped to any conclusions. I was way out of line. I also admit that his ethnicity as an Arab probably did cloud my judgement. Again, I am sorry. Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun deserves better than this. It looks like the worst he might have done was leave the base without permission, but probably to visit a girl he had met. He is not being accused of dessertion or treason. I am sorry for doubting your story. Thank you Cpl. Hassoun for your service.

Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun has returned to his unit in North Carolina, although his mysterious abduction by Islamic militants in Iraq has yet to be publicly explained.

Hassoun, 24, initially was accused of deserting, but after his hostage video aired on Arab satellite TV, his status was changed to "captured."

Marine Corps officials are "all over the map" over whether they believe Hassoun's story that he escaped execution, said one military source close to the case. He said there is a lingering suspicion that the videotaped threats to behead Hassoun were an elaborate hoax.

The skeptics wonder how he got from Iraq to his native Lebanon 500 miles away - where his wife lives - without a scratch.

The Muslim Marine spent all of August on leave with his family in Salt Lake City before rejoining the antiterrorist 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade at Camp Lejeune, N.C., on Aug. 30, officials said.

Hassoun is expected soon to be declared fit for duty, the military source said.

But he still could face desertion charges as the probe continues into how he was kidnapped from a secure base in Iraq and whether he was ever in captivity, sources said.

Though Hassoun was debriefed about his ordeal after returning stateside, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service has yet to interview him, leaving his case in limbo, sources said.

"He's frustrated that it's still out there," said the military source. "But he realizes there's a process that needs to take its course."

The Marines are being careful with Hassoun's case.

"Some of the early statements about Hassoun deserting probably went too far," the military source said. "We don't want to make this guy into a Chaplain Yee."

Capt. James Yee, the Muslim chaplain for the terror prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was accused of espionage last year but later cleared in a major embarrassment for the military.

Hassoun was reported missing on June 19 and presumed a deserter by the Marines, but he was shown days later on Arab TV as a blindfolded hostage with a sword dangling over his head.

On July 8, Hassoun popped up safe at the American Embassy in Beirut.

Hassoun, a veteran of the major combat phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom, denied he ran away.

The Bush-Rumsfield Neocon cabal has obviously infiltrated Russia to the highest levels. Like I've been saying since 9/11, this is a civilizational war. The events in Beslan have clarified things for the Russians. 9/11 was not a declaration of war, it simply woke us up from our slumbering false insecurity. War had been declared on us years before. Yahoo News:

Russia is prepared to make pre-emptive strikes on "terrorist bases" anywhere in the world, the Interfax news agency cited the country's chief of staff as saying.

"With regard to preventive strikes on terrorist bases, we will take any action to eliminate terrorist bases in any region of the world. But this does not mean we will carry out nuclear strikes," General Yuri Baluyevsky said Wednesday.

Baluyevsky added that Russia's choice of action "will be determined by the concrete situation where ever it may be in the world.

A London-based Chechen rebel representative said Wednesday that Russia's threats to attack terrorists around the world amount to a warning to European countries that Russian forces could carry out assassinations on their soil.

Akhmed Zakayev, an envoy for rebel leader and former Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, said such a strike by Russian forces would create a dangerous precedent.

"It is a warning to other European countries that Russia may come and carry out an assassination on your soil at any moment," he said....

[...]"It is a very disturbing signal they are sending for all civilized countries," Zakayev said. He added that it's especially worrying for Chechens who speak freely about their dissatisfaction with Russian President Vladimir Putin's policies.

This is just sick. Absolutely sick. I post pics of these things to wake readers up from the sleep America drifted into after 9/11. But these people? They make Ogrish look like a saint. Swiss Info:

The hottest selling item at Baghdad's video CD market is not a movie or a music video.

It's an ordinary Egyptian whose beheading was filmed by his Muslim militant captors and distributed as a gruesome message to
anyone who cooperates with U.S. troops in Iraq.

"The CD is in big demand. We sell about 300 to 400 clips a week," said Abu Muhammad, a shop owner who said he didn't have
the stomach to watch the decapitation by knife.

"We have all kinds of customers, both old and young."

The video shows a terrified Mohammed Abdel Aal kneeling in front of masked militants with AK-47 assault rifles as he confesses to planting electronic devices in houses that guided bombs dropped from U.S. warplanes.

One of the militants pulls out a knife, knocks down Abdel Aal, then severs his head and places it on his body over a pool of blood.

Such acts have been posted on radical Islamic Web sites carrying footage of several executions since militant groups and
guerrillas began a wave of kidnappings of foreigners in April.

It now appears that hostage-takers are also spreading chilling warnings to bustling Baghdad street markets and shops, where the
CD of Abdel Aal sells for the equivalent of 70 U.S. cents.

Several shopkeepers said the CD of the Egyptian was distributed by people from the guerrilla hotbed of Falluja to Baghdad
vendors who broadcast them on screens over crates along streets.

Called "The Spy", the CD appears on store shelves beside productions that have captivated Arab audiences for years, from
popular Egyptian comedians to belly dancers to pirated Western action movies.

CONSPIRACY THEORIES

One store owner said he could not bear to watch the execution CD, let alone sell it to scores of customers who appear every day.

"I remember I ran over a cat in 1985 and the sound of its suffering still haunts me so I can't watch this death," said Haydar Khalil,
54.

"The market is booming but I just can't do it."

But his friend, who watched the video, said the Egyptian deserved his fate.

"He said he offered Iraqi girls to the Americans. We cannot accept this, especially from a fellow Arab," said Allaa Hamdan, 32.

The video has already generated conspiracy theories in a country where people kept quiet for decades to avoid the iron first of
toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"A Muslim could not do something so barbaric. This was the work of Israeli intelligence trying to give Muslims a bad image in the
world," said video shop owner Abu Safwat.

"Besides Islam does not permit beheadings from the side of the neck like in the video. It must be done from the back of the neck."

Videos chronicling atrocities committed by Saddam and his sons are the next popular hit after the beheading CD although people
have begun to lose interest, shopkeepers said.

Now you're talking baby. Carrot and stick, carrot and stick. Anyone know what they mean by neutralization?Channel News Asia

Russia put a 10-million-dollar price tag on the heads of two Chechen rebel leaders accused of masterminding the hostage-taking which ended in a bloodbath at a Beslan school.

The FSB security service, in a statement quoted by Interfax news agency, said Wednesday that it would pay 300 million rubles "for reliable information on their whereabouts leading to the neutralization" of former Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov and of warlord Shamil Basayev.

It said the two were responsible for "inhuman" acts of terrorism carried out in Russia.

September 07, 2004

MEMRI has the full report on the Arab reaction, some of full condemnation and some of it a kind of half-hearted argument that this is bad because it hurts Islam. But here are the hightlights along with my thoughts:

is a group of criminal murderers, and everyone responsible for this crime must be hunted down and brought to trial in an international court. The time has come for everyone to accept as a first principle the sanctity of life and [the obligation] to avoid harming civilians…"

An international court? Am I being paranoid or is this a swipe at the US? If it is not, then the premise is still wrong. This is war, not some global court of law where we send out the Army to serve subpoenas.

[Past] terrorist actions in the world have only done damage to the causes of the peoples [involved] and furnished a moral pretext to the forces of evil and to the aggressors to subjugate peoples and countries and to destroy them… The occupation of Palestine, Chechnya, and Iraq are an evil that demands resistance, but the difference between resistance and terror is great and the confusion [of the two] serves [the interest] of the occupiers."

So, this is bad, mmm-kay but more so because it gives the even worse Yankee Imperialists an excuse to oppress....

" Obviously not all Muslims are terrorists but, regrettably, the majority of the terrorists in the world are Muslims. The kidnappers of the students in Ossetia are Muslims. The kidnappers and killers of the Nepalese workers and cooks are also Muslims. Those who rape and murder in Darfour are Muslims, and their victims are Muslims as well. Those who blew up the residential complexes in Riyadh and Al-Khobar are Muslims. Those who kidnapped the two French journalists are Muslims. The two [women] who blew up the two planes [over Russia] a week ago are Muslims. Bin Laden is a Muslim and Al-Houthi [the head of a terrorist group in Yemen] is a Muslim. The majority of those who carried out suicide operations against buses, schools, houses, and buildings around the world in the last ten years are also Muslims.

"What a terrible record. Does this not say something about us, about our society and our culture? If we put all of these pictures together in one day, we will see that these pictures are difficult, embarrassing, and humiliating for us. However, instead of avoiding them and justifying them it is incumbent upon us first of all to recognize their authenticity rather than to compose eloquent articles and speeches proclaiming our innocence…

Yes, it says something about you. Jesus said, "By their fruits ye shall know them." And that's not just some theologic statement, it's stating the obvious. Bad people are bad because they do bad things.

The propagandists of Jihad succeeded in the span of a few years in distorting the image of Islam, while the enemies of Islam did not succeed in doing this [even] in the course of hundreds of years. They turned today's Islam into something having to do with decapitations, the slashing of throats, abducting innocent civilians and exploding people. They have fixed the image of Muslims in the eyes of the world as barbarians and savages who are not good for anything except slaughtering people…

Does the word irony even begin to remotely describe the fact that the above quote comes out of a Saudi government daily newspaper? Unless the Saudis have decided to do away with decapitation for such horrible crimes as sodomy since the last time I checked.

The money quote, though, comes from a liberal Muslim blogger, who gets it right but I have the feeling he's about to get a fatwa laid on his ass:

'The Arabs and the Muslims Today Contribute Nothing to Civilization and Progress Except for Blood, Severed Heads, Scorched Bodies, and the Abduction and Murder of Children'

I love this one next one:

These savages are not Muslims but rather … enemies of Islam. Their goal is to distort the image of the Islamic religion, to cause damage to Muslims, to slow the spread of Islam and to turn it into a hated pariah religion which the entire world opposes…there is a true Islam and then there are those who stray from it and they are more dangerous than the Jews."

No, their goal is a world-wide Islamic state, is that something you reject too? If not, than are you only rejecting the means and not the ends? And what of the ends, aren't the ends just as horrible as the means? A state ruled by religious fanatics who would make Christians and Jews second-class citizens? A state that would outlaw atheism and polytheism? Is not that state just as intolerable and cruel as the ones the Chechen terrorists envision? I'm sorry, you must want a kinder-gentler kind of theocratic fascism.

There's more, some quite good and a relief to hear from the Muslim world, some half-hearted with the ever present blame the J-O-Os or Americans in the background. Go read it.

Chad over at In the Bullpen alerted me to the fact that the Chechen terrorists made a video tape of themselves while they were busy massacring children. The Chechen terrorists in Beslan, North Ossetia seem to be following the lead of the Chechens who held a Moscow theater hostage last year--they also shot a video. Chad noticed Yahoo News was running some vidcaps from the terrorist's video. I did some checking around and found these posted at NTV.RU. None are too graphic. NTV is the station that has a copy of the tape, but they have not posted the video and I presume the whole thing is much too graphic to air on Russian television (which is saying a lot). The pics are in the extended entry below. The NTV video can be viewed here, it's not very graphic and it's narrated in Russian.

UPDATE: On closer inspection the last few seconds of the video are disturbing. Vidcap #3 below is taken from a shot where you hear a voice in the background. The voice is talking to someone on a cell-phone. He is not speaking Russian. He is either speaking Turkic or Arabic, but he distinctly can be heard speaking the Arabic phrase "Allahu-Akhbar". The next scene is disturbing if brief. The camera looks down at blood on the ground and pans past what look to be the legs and arms of dead children. You cannot see their full bodies, just a brief glimpse as the camera pans past to focus on the blood. Horrible.

While despairing soldiers and rescue workers moved among the growing pile of body bags, it was revealed that an 18-month-old baby had been repeatedly stabbed by a black-clad terrorist who had run out of ammunition.

Other survivors told how screaming teenage girls were dragged into rooms adjoining the gymnasium where they were being held and raped by their Chechen captors who chillingly made a video film of their appalling exploits

An extremist Islamic cleric based in Britain said yesterday that he would support hostage-taking at British schools if carried out by terrorists with a just cause.

Omar Bakri Mohammed, the spiritual leader of the extremist sect al-Muhajiroun, said that holding women and children hostage would be a reasonable course of action for a Muslim who has suffered under British rule....

"The Mujahideen [Chechen rebels] would not have wanted to kill those people, because it is strictly forbidden as a Muslim to deliberately kill women and children. It is the fault of the Russians," he said.

Above: The children of Gradeschool #1 in Beslan, Ossetia are rounded up into the gym

Above: One of the bombs the Chechen terrorists displayed

Above: The terrorists view of the school burning after the attack. In the video, you can hear the terrorist talking on a cell phone in some language other than Russian. He can be distinctly heard saying "Allahu-Akhbar" or "God is Great" in Arabic.

Above: Another shot of the children, aren't these guys tough?

Above: An incindiary device made by the Chechen terrorists

Above: A Chechen terrorist strolls past the children. Notice their hands on top of their heads.

Above: A Chechen terrorist points at a bomb as a child flinches in fear

Above: What appears to be a trail of blood from a body that has been dragged across the floor?

Yahoo has some more photos, if you have the full video let me know and we'll get it to Chad for hosting.

Their names are Simona Pari and Simona Torretta (the latter pictured right). They were in Baghdad working for a humanitarian organization. The question of the day: will the Arab world rise up and demand their safe release? Reuters:

Gunmen have abducted two Italian aid workers and two Iraqis in central Baghdad in a brazen attack that will alarm foreigners who are already on edge from widespread kidnappings.

Witnesses told Reuters about 20 men with AK-47 assault rifles and pistols with silencers stopped their vehicles in a busy commercial area of Baghdad and raided a building housing humanitarian organisation Bridge to Baghdad.

They left with Italian staffers Simona Pari and Simona Torretta and two Iraqis, a women who worked for another Italian organisation Intersos and a male engineer who worked for Bridge to Baghdad.

The abductions raised the stakes in kidnappings that have gripped Iraq for months, with more than 100 foreigners and Iraqis seized since April mostly outside of the capital.

The latest abductions are likely to fuel uncertainty over the fate of two French journalists whose kidnappings have triggered intense diplomatic efforts to free them.

Insurgents kidnapped and killed Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni last month as he travelled to the southern city of Najaf. In April, kidnappers killed Italian security guard Fabrizio Quattrocchi.

In the Bullpen notes that "A Bridge to Baghdad is an organization attempting to end sanctions to Iraq and provide more international support for the nation." Nice. Next thing you know they will be grabbing Mother Theresa's corpse and threatening to behead it.

Kitty Kelley's new book The Family is causing quite a storm. Perhaps the biggest revelation in the book is that George W. "Bush did coke at Camp David when his father was President, and not just once either." Quite a shocking revelation, if true, and sure to reinforce the convictions of those who believe that George W. Bush is an overgrown frat boy who never really grew up. But who is Kitty Kelley and can her work be trusted? Is this, as she claims, a family biography or does her work represent nothing more than the National Enquirer in book length form?

Kitty Kelley's books include the 'biographies' of Nancy Reagan, Frank Sinatra, and Jackie Kennedy. Kelley once coined herself 'the Queen of sleeze' and if the subject matter of her books doesn't warn you of the type of reading material she supplies than this might: her book which 'researches' dirt on the House of Windsor has been banned in Brittain for it's libelous accusations.

Kitty Kelley has a penchant for ascribing inflamatory quotes to famous people, often relying on scorned lovers or others who have a bone to pick with her biographical subjects. For instance, in her unauthorized biography of Nancy Reagan she claims Nancy said that President Reagan:

Kelley also accused President Reagan of abandoning a girlfriend after impregnating her. According to Kelley, Reagan denied the child was his and walked away from the relationship.

If that wasn't bizarre enough, Kelley also accused the President of being a rapist:

He pushed his way inside and said he just had to see me. He forced me on the couch . . . and said, 'Let's just get to know each other.' It was the most pitched battle I've ever had, and suddenly in a matter of seconds I lost. . . . They call it date rape today.

Kelley also accused Nancy Reagan of having an affair with Frank Sinatra, and that the two had sex in the Governor's Mansion while Reagan was Governor.

As you can see, Kitty Kelley is no stranger to using unreliable sources to make her point: she has never met a celebrity without a sordid past. Kelley herself has been the subject of at least one unauthorized biography Poison Pen, written by former Reagan aid George Carpozi, Jr. The book is not one I can heartily recommend, as it uses Kelley's own libelous tactics against her, but it does debunk much of the myth that Kelley does her homework. This book documents case after case where Kelley uses unreliable sources to put her subjects in the most unflattering light.

And what kind of sources does Kitty Kelley use? Kelly claims that Bush used coke at Camp David based on Neil Bush's scorned ex-wife's word. Professor Bainbridge quotes the Mirror article cited above as naming the source:

She quotes his former sister-in-law Sharon Bush who claims: "Bush did coke at Camp David when his father was President, and not just once either."

The former President Bush refused Sharon's request for a $467,000 loan to keep her Houston mansion, telling her to find something cheaper. "The divorce is final," the elder Bush wrote, "[and] the best thing for you to do is get on with your life. Close the unhappy chapter with Neil, find a job, and look to the future, not the past."

Sharon is also not the most stable person:

After Sharon pulled some hair out of Neil's head, his lawyers accused her of practicing voodoo. But Sharon shot back: "I pulled Neil's hair out because I wanted to get it tested for cocaine, not because of voodoo."

Kitty Kelley has a history of using unreliable sources to make her subjects look bad. Her books are inflammatory and filled with half-truths, lies, and inuendos. Kelley's work represents the worst of the worst in writing, a cross between the fiction of the Weekly World News and the gossip of the National Enquirer. If ever there was an author worthy of contempt, Kitty Kelly is it.

Update:The source for the cocaine allegation is publicly saying she never made the statement. Kitty Kelley just makes things up.

September 06, 2004

Ok, I'm not a big fan of porn but if liberty means anything it is that one ought to be able to choose, even when such choices are wrong. Morality is meaningless without the option of choosing the bad. Anyway, now I know why the Dalai Lama is so pissed about Chinese oppression. I mean, what else are a bunch of celibates going to do for fun? From Xinhuanet:

Those who are engaged in the profit-oriented production and dissemination of pornographic materials through the Internet, mobile communication terminals and"phone-sex" services in China are subject to punishment as severe as life imprisonment, according to the latest legal interpretations.

China's Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate jointly issued the interpretations Sunday on the application of law in handling criminal cases concerning the production, duplication, publication, sales and dissemination of electronic pornographic materials through the Internet, mobile communication terminals and phone-sex services. They will take effect Monday.

If a pornographic website has been clicked for more than 250,000 times, the case would be considered "very severe" and relevant people would be applicable with sentences of life imprisonment, according to the interpretations.

Depending on the seriousness of the cases, the sentences range from living under compulsory surveillance, detainment, taking intocustody by the police, to various terms of imprisonment and life imprisonment.

According to the interpretations, grave cases of non-profit production and dissemination of pornographic materials are also criminal and subject to punishment. People who knowingly aid the production and dissemination of pornographic materials through the above-mentioned means are also culpable and will be punished.

China's criminal law contains stipulations on the punishment of production and dissemination of pornographic materials in general.

An official with the Supreme People's Court said the legal interpretations aim to maintain the normal order of the public network and communications and the legal rights and interests of the public.

Religious right or Muslims, it's all the same. You remember the great Oklahoma City Riots of '96 when Christans in that city rampaged the streets over the Tim McVeigh indictment, right? Read the whole story. Notice that one rioter yelled "You are American puppets" at the police. Abu Bakar Ba'asyir has been accused of involvement in the Bali nightclub bombing which killed 202, including 88 Australians. Jakarta Post:

Supporters of terror suspect Abu Bakar Ba'asyir fought a running battle with police officers and hurled shoes and other debris inside a courtroom, shortly after a judge dismissed on Monday the lawsuit against the arrest of the elderly cleric.

Judge Syamsul Ali announced at the South Jakarta District Court that police had valid grounds to detain Ba'asyir on terror charges.

The decision paved the way for prosecutors to continue holding him in custody to face trial, and for police to go ahead with arresting other terror suspects despite mounting protests from Islamic hardliners.

Immediately after hearing the verdict against the pre-trial suit filed by Ba'asyir's lawyers against police, one of his supporters threw his sandal at Syamsul, and security officers escorted him outside of the courtroom.

Other supporters, mostly activists from the Ba'asyir-led Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI), then began hurling all manner of footwear at a lawyer representing the police, while yelling that the judge was a puppet of the United States and made a decision based on what the superpower country wanted.

"Ustadz (teacher) Ba'asyir is not guilty. Allahu Akbar (God is great). You are all American puppets. You will receive punishment someday," one angry young man shouted.

Several officers, led by Pasar Minggu Police chief Comr. Didi S., rushed into the courtroom to try to help calm down the cleric's angry supporters.

But one of them instead struck Didi in the face. Another police officer, who tried to defend Didi, was also beaten by the mob.

The brawl eventually cooled down after more police officers arrived, while several of the apparent leaders of the group also helped calm down the crowd, who continued jeering the judge and police over the verdict.

Ba'asyir's lawyer Acmad Michdan also slammed the ruling, saying it showed the judge did not have the courage to make a ruling based on truth.

"Based on the Criminal Code, Ba'asyir must be released after the Constitutional Court struck down the articles permitting the retroactive application of the antiterror law," he claimed.

The Constitutional Court ruled on July 23 that the retroactive articles in Law No. 16/2003 on terrorism (passed a few months after the Bali bombings) were unconstitutional, even though the law itself remains in force.

Following the annulment, the team of lawyers for Ba'asyir filed a pre-trial suit with the district court to challenge the police arrest of their client on charges of involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed over 200 people.

However, according to Ba'syir's case file submitted to the Attorney General's Office, the police dropped the charge regarding the Bali bombings and instead will use the Criminal Code for that count.

The case file still has a charge against Ba'asyir under the antiterror law for playing a role in the 2003 bombing of the Marriott Hotel, Jakarta, which took place after Law No. 16/2003 was enacted.

Commenting on Ba'asyir's verdict, a legal expert from the University of Indonesia, Rudy Satrio, said the court decision would encourage the police to continue making arrests of Muslim activists suspected of terror, despite little solid evidence.

Some 150 activists have been arrested by police with alleged links to terrorism since the Bali terror attack, according to Muslim lawyers.

They Muslim lawyers demanded an end to such arrests, which they said were made "arbitrarily and unlawfully".

An unmanned US spy plane has crashed in Fallujah. Sources say residents danced in the streets with glee. Unofficial reports indicate they were doing the 'safety dance', more evidence that Iraq's path to development might take years longer than expected. The surviving members of Men Without Hats could be reached for comment.

Dan Darling does a great job of supplying the background info necessary to understand the Chechen conflict. He also delves into the connections between the jihadists and the Chechen nationalists. They run deep. It is possible that Chechens have a legitimate bone to pick with their Russian masters and I don't find it hard to believe that the Russian military is guilty of war crimes in Chechnya. However, the Chechens have chosen our enemies as allies. They chose unwisely. Now is the time to back the Russians in their efforts to annhialate the jihadi movement in Chechnya and surrounding provinces. It will be an ugly campaign, but no uglier than the campaign that wiped National Socialism off the map.

The country [Chechnya] was taken over by a mixture of international terrorist organizations, Wahhabi theocrats, drug cartels, and other criminal organizations that subsided more or less on generous funding from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

This funding helped the Wahhabis to finalize control over the institutional infrastructure of the de facto independent state and led for calls for the imposition of sha'riah even though most Chechens (and Caucasus Muslims in general) are Sufis. The al-Qaeda presence in Chechnya was headed up by bin Laden's protege Amir ibn al-Khattab, a Saudi national who had previously assisted Islamic fighters in the Tajik Civil War and the Armenia-Azerbaijan War over Nagorno-Karabakh.

It's pretty odd when Atrios starts defending Kerry by accusing the Swift Boaters of being guilty of war crimes. I guess the logic is, "Kerry is telling the truth that he was a war criminal, but since the Swift Boaters deny that they are war criminals they are a liars and can't be trusted about all that other stuff." Right? Via Eschaton this story (subscription):

Now the right had seized upon the Vietnam War, too -- specifically the role, in uniform and out, of Sen. John Kerry. And to Means, it seemed just as wrong.

Means, a 55-year-old investigator for several Bakersfield law firms, was particularly annoyed by the words of one retired admiral. Roy F. "Latch" Hoffman, one of the co-founders of the pro-George W. Bush group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, had publicly criticized Kerry, a former Swift boat commander, for having brought back stories about alleged war crimes by U.S. forces -- often carried out, Kerry said in 1971, "with the full awareness of officers at all levels."

Seemed to him, Means said, his own Swift boat crew had come close to committing a war crime themselves one day. A senior officer, hitching a ride up the coast aboard their Swift boat, had ordered the crew to fire on a small group of unarmed Vietnamese fishermen working their nets in unrestricted waters, Means said. The boat's commanding officer had refused to comply.

Was that the way the boat's commander remembered the incident too, all these years later? Means had to know.

So he got on the Internet and hunted down Thomas W.L. "Tad" McCall, the retired Navy captain who'd commanded Means' boat, PCF 88, as a newly minted ensign. Means called him.

Not only did McCall remember the day in question, and that confrontation off the coast of South Vietnam, he remembered the name of the officer who had given the command to shoot: "Latch" Hoffman himself, then a Navy captain in charge of the entire Swift boat task force in Vietnam.

The next morning Means told me the whole story. Then I called McCall myself.

McCall, now 60, remembers March 14, 1969, because it was his 25th birthday. He'd only been running a Swift boat for a few weeks, having arrived in Vietnam in January 1969, the same month as Means.

McQ over at QandO does an excellent follow up on why this matters so much to so many. It's because John Kerry meant the things he said in 1971.

34 hostages have been killed since 9/11 and the threat of killing two Frenchman finally gets the Religion of Peas moving. Telegraph:Iraq's most senior Sunni religious body said yesterday it would issue a fatwa outlawing the abduction and execution of any foreigner in the country....

The fatwa was issued by the country's committee of Muslim scholars, or ulema. Although it had called for the release of reporters Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot in the past, it had refused to condemn the kidnapping and execution of hostages from countries that backed the US invasion.

"We are going to issue a fatwa declaring that the kidnapping of foreigners in general is not Islamic and ordering that all hostages be released immediately," said Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abdul Jabbar, a senior cleric.PS-Religion of Irony update:

Refusing to comply with a fatwa, the most serious command that can be issued in Islam, risks damnation and execution.

Ask and ye shall receive. Thanks everyone for such insightful advice (except Rick James). The general consensus seems to be that bloggers like me, who write ten or more posts a day, ought to take a day off devoted to other activities. I know Mrs. Shackleford sure appreciated the fact that the computer stayed off all day. For lighter bloggers this might not be the case. The risk of course is that the sitemeter plunges when you do not post. I guess I'll live with that.

Just to clear up some confusion out there, I am a believer. On top of that I attend church regularly--every week in fact. And to add insult to injury I actually have some position of authority in the church--frightening, isn't it? So if I ever sound blasphemous you can be sure it's tongue in cheek. Besides, I think God doesn't mind people poking fun at all the dumbasses out there. Errr, well, at least I hope he doesn't.

September 04, 2004

I've been feeling pretty guilty about blogging on Sundays. As a Sabbath observer, I'm thinking that blogging isn't the most spiritual activity nor does it add to my overall day of rest experience. I'm not going to blog tomorrow and I'll see how I feel. Any other Sabbath observers out there who want to chime in? Do you think it's something I ought to think about giving up one day a week? I'm looking for both the religious/spiritual angle and the strictly rational argument. Anyway, I'll check back in on Monday and see what the masses think.

I was just reading about how former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy conviction was overturned. That's right, sodomy. Oh, and this wasn't a replay of Lawrence v. Johnson. He was let out on a technicality. Had he the evidence that he had actually had sex with another man been better, well, let's just say Mr. Ibrahim would not be on a plane to see London's fabulous night-life right now. So, let's just keep the whole gay marriage thing in perspective, shall we? I'm looking in your general direction Sullie.

Iraqi militants threatened to behead a Turkish truck driver if his company and the Kuwaiti contractor it works for don't stop their operations in Iraq within 48 hours, according to a videotape aired on Arab television Saturday.

The United States and its allies have moved closer to capturing Osama bin Laden in the last two months, a top U.S. counterterrorism official said in a television interview broadcast Saturday.

"If he has a watch, he should be looking at it because the clock is ticking. He will be caught," Joseph Cofer Black, the U.S. State Department coordinator for counterterrorism, told private Geo television network.

Asked if concrete progress had been made during the last two months - when Pakistan has arrested dozens of terror suspects including some key al-Qaida operatives - Black said, "Yes, I would say this."

That's a good appetizer. I'd suggest a nice incitement to murder lawsuit to go with that. The main course would be to never let it open again. And for dessert? How does a nice JDAM sound? If killing in war is justified, why is shutting down hostile media outlets not? You know, cause when you kill someone dies. But when you shut down hostile media, the principle of free-speech is broken, but lives are saved. There has to be a trump card in there somewhere. Xinhuanet:

The Iraqi interim government Saturday renewed closure of offices of the Arabic-language satellite television network Al-Jazeera over incitement toviolence.

The decision was taken as the Qatar-based channel did not submit explanations requested by the Iraqi government, the prime minister's office announced in a statement.

The statement said during the temporary closure since Aug. 5,the Iraqi Government had expected the al-Jazeera management to offer an explanation to the presented allegations or to officiallyrequest a description of the possible threat that the channel maybe imposing. However, none of this has happened."

"Additionally, al-Jazeera TV has not respected the decision taken by the ministerial national security committee and has continued to broadcast from within Iraq and interview individuals on Iraqi soil regardless of the temporary closure order," added it.

The government, therefore, decided to extend the ban on al-Jazeera from operating within Iraq until a time when its headquarters sends an official response of their policies andmotives within Iraq, said the statement.

Wait, so a friend of Bush's father tried to pull a few strings when no string pulling was necessary? It reminds me of the student's Mom who called me on the day of a test begging me to let her son take a make-up. "Okay," I says to her, "I'll do you a favor--but don't go spreading it around that I let him take a make-up." Of course, I would have given him the make-up anyway and her son might have known that had he bothered to read the syllabus. But it always makes people feel good if they think they are the reason something gets done.

I knew it. Look long enough and the hidden hand of the J-O-Os will be revealed in all dastardly deeds:

Ali Abdullah, an Islamic scholar in Bahrain who follows the ultra-conservative Salafi stream of Islam, also condemned the school attack as 'unIslamic'. However, he insisted Muslims were not involved and revived an old conspiracy theory: 'I have no doubt that this is the work of the Israelis, who want to tarnish the image of Muslims.'

September 03, 2004

UPDATE: Whew. Steve pulled through for us, even if Sullie didn't show. I think I heard something about meeting a bear on the way to the meeting....Anyhoo, this is what it is like to be a political scientist. I know on TV there's a whole lot more grave-robbing and bullwhip swinging, but in reality the life of a political scientist is not so glamorous. FYI-Woodrow Wilson was the 1st President of the American Political Science Association. Yips!

I've never been a fan of Robert Reich, but I always respected his analysis...until now. I think he's been reading too much Chomsky and might have eaten a bad shroom. Does Reich really believe this stuff? From his site plugging his book Reason:

Bush's top 7 agenda items for a second term:

1) Invade and occupy Iran. [It's all a neocon conspiracy!!]

2) Make tax cuts permanent for richest 5 percent. [True, if not selective in data usage]

6) Redistrict all congressional seats, to assure a permanent Republican majority. [Hey dumbass, state legislatures do this not the President.]

7) Make the budget deficit so big that Social Security has to be privatized because there's no money to fund it. [Backdoor conspiracy theory, you are a complete loon. As a percent of GDP we have had far greater deficits and I still pay my SS taxes. I mean, I wish this were true, but the deficit has nothing to do with SS.]

And how do we prevent Bush from invading country after country, killing our environment, and taking away our jobs?

Liberals' top 7 things to do to make sure Bush doesn't have a second term:

2) If you're not in a "battle-ground state," call every acquaintance who is, and ask whether they're better off today than four years ago. If the answer is "no," recruit them to go door-to-door for Kerry. [Of course, since the unemployment rate is only one-half of one percent higher today than it was four years ago you will need to call 200 people before you will find someone who is worse off today than they were four years ago. With not use the money saved on long-distance phone calls to give to a nice charity instead?]

3) Leave work from October 19 to November 2, to go door-to-door for Kerry. [Yes, that way when your boss fires you we can blame the increase in unemployment number and make Bush look bad.]

4) Say ocrats will give us affordable health care and better jobs" to everyone. [Lie to people. If you believe this and you say it you're not lying, your just stupid. Either way, your probably better off saying nothing at all.]

5) Call and remind right-wing talk radio hosts that the Framers of the Constitution erected a wall between church and state. [Lie to people, again. The framers wrote "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" and that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." That's it. One founder wrote of a 'wall of seperation between Church and State.' One.]

6) Mention "Alabama National Guard" every time anyone says "Swift Boat." [Fair come back. Then again, why not mention "cut off ears" "raised villages" and "Ghenghis Khan" back at them.]

7) GIVE 'EM HELL. [Bring it on.]

Other than being completely nutty, I also object to Reich's book title. The problem with so many people on the left and right is that they seem to think their core beliefs are based on intelligence alone. In their minds, the other side is decieved. They think, "If only people were as smart as I am, or had all the facts as they exist, they would come to the same conclusion as me." No, people have differences of opinion because a) people have different values b) reality is not so easily measured that two equally intelligent or reasonable people might disagree.

To think that your position is reasonable, while the opposition is unreasonable is the height of arrogance. This is doubly so when you are not talking about a position, but rather an ideology which may includes multiple positions--each of which may or may not be reasoned. To argue that liberals are liberals because reason compelled them to it is the height of arrogance. The same is true for any ideological construct.

Lebanon's parliament is going ahead with a vote to extend the term of Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud on Friday despite a U.N. Security Council resolution warning Damascus against interfering in Lebanon.

They won't get away with this!! The Arab street will rise up! The UN will invade and force it's will!!

Look away. This post is not happening. The real problem is Osama bin Laden. Al Qaeda is a small organization. Let's send special forces to take them out. BBC:

....20 hostage-takers had died in exchanges of fire with troops, at least nine of them Arabs.

Terrorists are linked together by common ideology, not by the boundaries of organizations. Al Qaeda, Hamas, the KLA, the Iranian government, and Chechens alll share a vision of the future worldwide Islamic state. That vision is the enemy. Hat tip: LGF

Say a prayer, if that's your style, that Bubba pulls through with flying colors and that his anesthesiologist is a diehard Dem.
------
I think it's great that this and the hurricane and even the russian school disaster(terribly tragic) is taking attention away from the RNC.

And we know this is all the fault of the Republican Convention. Of course, on the positive side, as has already been noted here, the Moron in Chief has been duly upstaged by Bill the Fantastic.
-----
To be honest, most of the comments were pretty straightforward get well soons with some salt and pepper hate Bush thrown in here and there. The irony is that the average Atrios comment thread reads just like a Freeper thread. Just switch the names and the tin-foil remains the same.

The recently captured militant came to the attention of Saudi authorities after the atttack in al-Khobar. They said he was identified as one who provided information and support for the four men who participated in the attack.

Twenty-two people died in al-Khobar in a hostage standoff that began May 29, ending with Saudi troops storming the residential compound where militants had taken more than 200 people hostage.

What was the name of the American who died in this incident? It was not Paul Johnson, who died on Jun 13. Anyone?

Horrible. Sickened. Update from Stan who is translating original Russian sources: "ex hostages are saying that terrorists began killing hostages before the storm." Now we see why the Russians had to go in. Reuters:

Russian troops stormed a school Friday in a chaotic battle to free hundreds of parents, teachers and children who had been held hostage for two days by Chechen separatists.

Naked and screaming children ran for safety amid machinegun fire and explosions while attack helicopters clattered overhead. The Tass and Interfax news agencies spoke of over 300 wounded, mostly children. Rebels fled with soldiers in pursuit.

Witnesses at the scene in Beslan, in the North Ossetia region near Chechnya, saw several bodies on stretchers and Russian news agencies said at least seven people had been dead on arrival at hospital.

Half- or fully naked children gulped from bottles of water after two days without drink in a stiflingly hot and crowded school. Some lay on stretchers.

I wish it had not ended this way, but Russia has now declared war on terrorists. All civilized countries that border Islamic lands are the front lines of this civilizational war. Once again, we find a situation where Russia will recieve the brunt of a war in which we are involved. The Russians call WWII the "Great Patriotic War". What will they call this one? I do not like the name Global War on Terror because it is innacurate. This is a war against a fascist ideology. One which seeks to impose Sharia law on free peoples. This war will not end with two allied armies meeting in some Middle Eastern capital. This is a war which will not end until moderate Muslims rise up and fight. It is not enough for them to live their lives. Now is the time for action, not words. To the Russian people who live on the front lines brace yourselves. This is only the beginning. God speed.

In true Llama Butcher fashion, Steve proposes ambushing Wonkette with some curve-ball questions and is taking requests here. What would you ask Wonkette? As a bonus, he's also bringing his digital cam along with him. I asked him to get a non-faux-lesbo pic but I have a few non-Jessica Cutler related questions as well. I'm thinking of a few zingers for AS too, none of which are related to Madonna's newest CD or the off-Broadway revival of Cats.

I am a card-carrying member of the esteemed APSA and I can't believe I'm missing this year! Yips to the Llama Butchers!!!

Super Secret Encoded PS-Steve, ixneh on the alkingteh to anybodyeh about Rustyeh's issertationeh!!!!

Bin Laden captured in Pakistan. It's true. No, not really. But I did read it on the internet, which, according to my students, must make it true. I read this earlier today and took a pass. Now that Kevin Aylward is on it I figured I'd just throw it out there for the gullible and/or conspiracy minded.

Islamic militants in Iraq have handed over two French hostages to another guerrilla group opposed to their kidnap and murder, the editor of one of the reporters held captive says.

As hopes rose that Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot could be released as soon as Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier told reporters he understood the pair were "alive and getting good treatment".

Le Figaro editor Jean de Belot said on France Info radio on Thursday: "The latest information is that Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot have been handed over by the Islamic Army in Iraq to an Iraqi Sunni guerrilla group... an opposition that we know for a few days now has been in favour of the release of the hostages."

Anger/irrational/irresponsible mode on:

What????!!!!??? Are you fu**ing kidding me? 31 other hostages are dead! 31!!!! And two fu**ing frog journalists are threatened with death and the whole fu**ing Islamic world rises up to their defense? Just last night three Turkish hostages were murdered. Three...yesterday!!! The day before that TWELVE!!! You sons of whores in the Islamic world. You bastards. Where were you when Kim Sun-Il begged for his life? When Enzo Baldoni was awaiting his certain death sentence, why were you not out protesting for his release? For a month 12 Nepalese hostages plead for their lives, where were you? You bastards. You bloody bastards. Damn you for this. Damn you to hell.

Among the many dramatic statements made over the last week in the heat of the unfolding events, perhaps the strongest came from Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov on 1 September. "War has been declared, a war in which the enemy is invisible and there is no front line," Ivanov said in a statement that was repeatedly broadcast on the national television channels. He said that the 31 August suicide bombing outside a Moscow subway station "was not the first and not the last terrorist" act that Russia will see in this now-open war.

State Duma Speaker and former Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov echoed Ivanov's statements in remarks the same day. "It is time for all those who tried to romanticize acts of madness, who try to present acts of terrorism as a lonely struggle for independence and justice, to come to the only proper conclusion: this is war," Gryzlov said, according to "Vremya novostei" on 2 September. He added that the war is being waged by well-financed and well-organized groups with international ties. "We are obliged to undertake measures commensurate with this situation," Gryzlov added. He said that the front line in this war "passes through the entire country" and the new situation "demands particular vigilance from everyone."

Gryzlov also said that new legislative initiatives in keeping with the new, wartime situation are being drafted and will be presented to the Duma in short order. He added that many of these initiatives are being drafted by law-enforcement and security agencies themselves, including the Justice Ministry, the Federal Security Service (FSB), and the Interior Ministry.

The biggest problem I foresee is that Russia has historically used external or internal threats as a way of justifying abuses to civil liberties/rights. And no, I don't mean the kind of petty things--the type of things the left accuses our own government of doing--I'm talking big things. You remember the gulags, right? I'm not saying that kind of abuse is inevetable, but such things have been known to happen.

Regardless of the possibility--and it is only a possibility--for abuse, the news that the Russians are going into post 9/11 mode is a good sign.

The terrorists have released 32 hostages. The names of 25 of them have been released in Russian. I have transliterated the names below. They seem to be mostly infants and their immediate caregivers. Stan at Logic and Sanity is updating constantly.

If he turns out to be a terrorist then hoooray for our side. If he turns out to be just a lunatic, shame on us for racial profiling. It's the classic error question. In the face of uncertainty which risk is greater if it turns out you're wrong: the risk of missing a terrorist or the risk of unecessarily offending a group? Hmm, that's a toughie.

Authorities say the unusual behavior of a New York truck driver who was pulled over for speeding and then shot during a confrontation with a state trooper has prompted them to investigate possible terrorist ties.

Mohammed Medhat Karim, 46, was pulled over Monday by Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Thomas C. Kilpatrick for speeding on U.S. Highway 64 in Wayne County, about 80 miles southwest of Nashville.

As Kilpatrick was returning with the citation, authorities said Karim backed into the trooper's car, and "there was a confrontation at that time."

Kilpatrick fired several shots, striking the driver in his chest, according to reports. Karim somehow took the gun away from the trooper, got back in his rig and drove about a mile before apparently realizing he had been shot and pulled over, authorities said. He was then arrested.

"It's a very strange set of circumstances," said District Attorney General Mike Bottoms, who called for the probe. "We're trying to find out why a driver would act the way this one did for a speeding ticket."

Maj. Gen. Jerry Humble, director of Tennessee's Homeland Security, said authorities "don't have any indication right now" that Karim may be tied to terrorists, but they're just being "cautious." "It's normal procedure," Humble said. "This is the world we live in after 9/11, so this is the steps we have to take. Law enforcement never know what's going to happen."

Humble agreed with Bottoms that it was Karim's "actions" that "raised our eyebrows," not his foreign-sounding name or the fact that President Bush was in town Tuesday to speak to the American Legion national convention.

"It was irrational behavior from a commercial truck driver, and this was a crime," Humble said. Karim's tractor trailer has been impounded, he said, and it's going to be off-loaded. Authorities haven't yet learned what cargo the truck was carrying.

Meanwhile, Karim remains at Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he was listed in critical condition Tuesday.

No charges have been filed against him, and his driving record was not available under New York privacy laws. Kilpatrick has been placed on administrative leave with pay.

Kidnappers in Iraq said they killed three Turkish hostages, al-Jazeera television news reported, showing a video of the three men kneeling on the ground before their captors.

Qatar-based al-Jazeera said it received the video from the Tawhid wal Jihad group showing the execution. The station didn't broadcast the killing. Tawhid wal Jihad means Unity and Holy War in Arabic. Groups demanding the withdrawal of foreign troops and businesses have kidnapped several foreigners working in Iraq. Some of the hostages have been killed.

The slain bodies of two Turkish citizens and a third unidentified man were discovered in northern Iraq, police Maj. Sadoun Ahmed Matrud said Thursday.

It was not immediately clear when the three were killed, nor what they were doing in Iraq, he said. The bodies were found by a police patrol eight kilometres from the northern city of Samarra late Wednesday and were taken to a city hospital for an autopsy, Matrud said.

He said police found identification on two of the bodies that showed they were Turks, but nothing was discovered on the third body.

Where is Hamas pleading to save the lives of their fellow Muslim Turks? I think I'll go back to bed. Today is not looking very good.

Two large blasts went off Thursday near a school in southern Russia, where militants were holding hundreds of children and adults hostage.

The extremists were said to be heavily armed — some with bombs strapped to their bodies — as the standoff entered a second day. About 350 hostages were being held after terrorists stormed the school early Wednesday.

The explosions shook the area about 10 minutes apart, leaving a plume of black smoke in their wake. A soldier told FOX News that the terrorists fired on a car and that was the apparent source of the explosion.

The militants were also sporadically firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles from the school, FOX News has learned.

Thanks to Jeff Quinton for notifying me about this. He first heard the news from James Joyner. I don't know what to say. I'm speechless. Literally. I'm going to pray.

Update: Sigh of relief. Jeff pointed out that the Command Post is reporting that the terrorist scumbags blew up a car outside the building. A short reprieve, at the very least. Let's hope this situation turns out better than what I am expecting.

September 01, 2004

ONE OF the main Bali bombers has been let out of prison to have coffee at a popular shopping mall in central Jakarta, it was reported today.

Ali Imron, the so-called repentant bomber sentenced to life imprisonment for his part in the attacks which claimed more than 200 lives, was spotted having coffee at Starbucks with the director of Indonesian narcotics and drugs Brigadier-General Gorries Mere.

When challenged by journalists the pair and a number of black-clad armed police guards fled to a waiting car and sped off, Detik.com news said tonight.

"I walk often with Pak (Mr) Gorries," Ali Imron said in response to questions.

A Star Wars acedemy that teaches about the religion of the Jedi, use of the light sabre and speaking in Wookiee has opened its doors in Romania.

Adrian Pavel, who runs the country's Star Wars Club, decided to found the Jedi Academy after getting so many questions from fellow fans on how they can be more like their heroes in the Star Wars films.

He told local daily Libertatea: "We have meetings and lectures, and we dress like Jedis, but this is no longer enough. We'll soon learn how to handle the light sabres in academy classes.

"The academy is open to everybody. There is a quiz with 100 questions that will cover even the darkest aspects of the Star Wars phenomenon that needs to be done in 24 hours. Anyone who passes quiz will have a place in the Jedi Academy."

The academy is also offering special modules for true devotees, like cooking some of the dishes seen in the Star Wars films including Wookiee Cookies, Princess Leia Danish donughts, Sand Trooper sandwiches and Twin Sun toasts.

Yeah, well it is a battle between good and evil, isn't it? Clearly, Bush is evil.
-------------------What was the quote from Margaret Cho the other day?

"Bush is not like Hitler."

Pause.

"He could be if he applied himself, but he's just too lazy."

Speaking of pure evil: this is Karl Rove today from the AP.....
----------------------
"A house divided against itself cannot stand." Abraham Lincoln said that. He cribbed it from the Bible, I understand. Funny thing about Lincoln, he was able to use the Bible to speak to all Americans -- all who were willing to listen, at least -- instead of using it to send secret messages to his base.
--------------
Those people are just nuts. They're fucking nuts. They're still fighting against the Enlightenment.

They live in a world full of demons and angels and invisible forces. If you encountered someone who thought he was living in Middle Earth, and that Sauron tempted him at all times but his faith in Elbereth saves him, you would think he was batshit loony. What the fuck is the difference between that and the hard-core Jeebus-believers?
---------------------
I hope the cRapture comes soon. I would sure like that hot car parked over at Ye Olde Megachurch. I understand it belongs to the pastor.

cRapture Scavenger Hunt...she who gets the most stuff wins!
------------------
They are, quite frankly, detached from reality. They are not all here.

They are delusional.

It may not be too outrageous to say they are mentally ill.
--------------
DEAR GOP:

YOUR GOD IS AN ASSHOLE.

GOOD THING HE DOESN"T EXIST.
-------------
It is a damn war between them and us and we are on the side of light. Damn, the news is all depressing today.
------------
As an Oklahoman, I agree with Coburn that it is a battle of good and evil. Except he's the evil one...

Why shouldn't the Nepalese hostages have been killed? Because they were 'simple people', said Iraq's leading Sunni scholar. Also, group executions aren't all that great, either. It's better to ice them one by one:

"We are against killing hostages, particularly if it has been a group execution. Those 12 Nepalese hostages are simple people. They might have been deceived to serve the occupation forces," he said.

Seven truck drivers from Egypt, Kenya and India held by militants in Iraq since July 21 have been released, Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV reported Wednesday.

Three Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian appeared in interviews with the al-Arabiya channel, looking in good mood and healthy. The seven hostages were kidnapped on July 21 by a group calling itself "Holders of the Black Banners" affiliated to a group called "Secret Islamic Army".

The men arrived at Kuwait’s international airport after their company paid Iraqi militants the cash to secure their release.

The freed hostages – three Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian – were hugged and presented with flowers by executives and employees of the company they worked for, Kuwait Gulf Link Transport.

KGL chief executive officer, Said Dashti, said the men were freed after a team of company employees drove under armed guard to an unspecified location in Iraq where the drivers were being held to pay the ransom.

“The kidnappers were not trying to make a political statement, they were purely extortionists,” Dashti said.

Dashti said the kidnappers’ initial demands included a £4 million ransom, the release of prisoners held in the US military prison in Guantanamo and compensation for victims of coalition attacks in the western Iraqi city of Fallujah.

But the kidnappers lowered their demands as their negotiations with tribal and religious leaders and parties close to the company continued, Dashti added.

Asked if he thought paying ransom money will encourage more kidnappings and terrorism, Dashti said: “Yes, but I had no other choice, the drivers are human beings and were trying to save their lives.”

Hat tip: (Somebody e-mailed me with this one this morning, if it was a fellow blogger drop me a line so I can link you. Sorry, rough day.)

UPDATE II: In response to my request on more information on the Gorkhalis, BRD has a great post explaining some background on Nepal. Brian B also has an interesting link in this post on the relationship of the Gurkhas in the British military.

Whatever is happened is very bad. We felt pleasure when Iraq
Entered Semifinal in Olympic Football which at present we feel we were
wrong to support Iraqis - the murders.

Whoever were killed were innocents. They were there to earn
some money to get rid of from the tensions of being poor. Their family
members were waiting for returns from their son / brother so on ......but
they got a great shock which made us to feel very very sad even we
don't know who they were (we don't have any relation except being same
nationality.)

If those, who had committed such a damnful sin, had guts then try
and see who the Gorkhalis are. If they think that they have got power
from their so called Allah then we also have our own Bhagawans. If they
think that they can do anything what so over they want then I just want
to challenge them just to show their faces.

If they son of a single father, if their mother is devoted to only
their father then just show their faces. Don't show the power under the
shawls.
Even they don't have guts to show their faces then Ghanta power.

WE GORKHALIS CHALLENGE THEM TO COME TO OPEN BATTLE FIELD.
LET'S CHECK THE POWER - THE GUTS.
________________________________________________________________

From: Nisu

Fuck off you iraqi.You are bloody gibbering tyrants who do not deserve
to be a human . .If you call yourself real man why the fuck are you
hiding your face behind the bloody black mask.You are just bloody
cold-blooded killers who enjoy slaughtering innocent people.I challange you as
A BRAVE GORKHALI come out of the bloody camouflage and face the real
GORKHALIS and we the brave NEPALIS(GORKHALIS) will surely show you what a
real man AND A NEPALI is meant to be .I challange you bloody fuckers
and the followers of the FUCKING ISLAM COME OUT!!!! AND FACE US!!!!!!
FACE US!!!!!!!!!!!BLOODY COLD-BLOODED FUCKERS WE WILL SURELY SHOW YOU WHAT
SLAUGHTERING A NEPALI MEANS!!!!!
________________________________________________________________

From: Deep

Those Iraqis who killed our beloved will cry to spare their life with
us....... TO REMIND THEM, WE ARE GORKHALIS!!! Start counting your
fingers now........ cause anytime we can strike your FUCKERS. We don't hate
Muslims which is very true but the people who contradicts our essence
can never be happier throught their life. This is a threat to the
terrorist who have vandalised our assumption with a note of peace........ NOW
GET READY TO FACE OUR ANGER, We are Gorkhas and we will for sure strike
you down!!!
If any community need to seek support to strike those ass holes down.
Call Nepalese, we will be there..... rod is hot and it is time to nav
and eradicate them. Even we are having hard time with our own issues, I
am sure even Moist will join with you for this endavour.
Please call us and include us openly to massacare those SICK FUCKERS!!!
_______________________________________________________________

From: Hate Iraqi Militants

The revenge of the Nepaslese killings will be taken from the Iraq
millitants. They will cry in hell.
_________________________________________________________________

From: Sushant chalise

Fuck off you army of ansar al-sunna.You are bloody gibbering tyrants
who do not deserve to be a human and dont knoe the real meaning of
humanity. You are the one who take fun slaughtering innocent vicitims and
you are the bloody fuckers not to be called a real man.If you call
yourself real man why the fuck are you hiding your face behind the bloody
black mask.You are just bloody cold-blooded killers who enjoy
slaughtering innocent people.I challange you as A BRAVE GORKHALI come out of the bloody camouflage and face the real GORKHALIS and we the brave
NEPALIS(GORKHALIS) will surely show you what a real man AND A NEPALI is meant to be .I challange you bloody fuckers and the followers of the FUCKING
ISLAM COME OUT!!!! AND FACE US!!!!!! FACE US!!!!!!!!!!!BLOODY COLD-BLOODED FUCKERS WE WILL SURELY SHOW YOU WHAT SLAUGHTERING A NEPALI MEANS!!!!!
______________________________________________________________

From: bishow paudel

rEALLY ITS A SHOCKING NEWS FOR THE WHOLE NEPALI NAND THE GLOBE WHO WANTS TO LIVE IN PEACE.I ON BEHALF OF ALL NEPALI HATE ALL THIS KIND OF KIDNAPPING

______________________________________________________________

From: Season

IT'S REALLY SOCKING NEWS THAT ALL THE NEPALESE GUYS IN IRAQUE IS
MURDERED. IT'S VERY PAINFUL N CRUEL ACTIVITIES SHOWN BY THE TERORIST. THE ALLAHA MASHIHA NEVER FORGIVE THOSE ALL TERORIST WHO COMITED SUCH CRUEL MURDER. THEY WERE INNOCENT N THEY WERE THERE JUST FOR SURVIVING THEMSELF BUT THIS O CALLED TERORIST GROUP SHUT DOWN THEM. WHY?????????? IF U R SUCH POWERFUL THEN WHY DON'T U MAKE YOUR OWN OLD. IS IT BRAVE TO MURDER INNOCENT GUYS??????? I PRAY TO ALLHA ..IF U R THERE, PLZ NEVER FORGIVE
THIS CRUEL TERORIST GROUP.

________________________________________________________________

From: aditya

god will newer except you , and you peoples defenately will be suck in
your each life and born.
________________________________________________________________

From: CHIMAYA MASI

What ever this happen is very shocking and those who kill our nepalese
they donot have any ball hanging and even they don't know who are their
father and how many they got. They are the real example of MOTHER
FUCKER. WE WON'T EXCUSE THIS HAPPENING. SON OF BITCH W'LL SOON TAKE A ACTION.THE COWARD AND RATY ARMY OF ANSAR ALSUNNAH THAT MEANS ARMY OF MOTHER FUCKER.

Savages. This hostage crisis represents a clear turn in tactics among Muslim insurgents. The hostage takers appear to be Chechen, but their demands are not related to the Islamic insurgency in the Caucuses. Rather, they claim that this is about the undeclared war between Russia and Georgia in South Ossetia. Please see this post for background. What is so frightening about this is that it represents an alliance of convenience between Islamic terrorists and Christian Georgians. Both have a common enemy in Russia, although, I find it hard to believe that any Georgians knew of this attack in advance. However, it is evidence that terrorists will back nation-states, even ones that they consider immoral on theologic grounds, for the sake of common enemies and more immediate goals. NY Times:

Heavily armed insurgents, some with explosives strapped to their bodies, seized a school in southern Russia today and herded scores of schoolchildren and others into its gymnasium.

More than a dozen guerrillas, including men and women, stormed Middle School No. 1 in the town of Beslan in the republic of North Ossetia, not far from Chechnya on Russia's southern border with Georgia, just moments after the opening of the new school year, according to officials there and news reports.

Gunfire erupted during the seizure and afterwards. At least 3 people were reported killed and at least 10 wounded, according to preliminary accounts.

The local police, as well as special forces and soldiers from Russia's 58th Army, surrounded the school, creating a nervous stand-off that continued into this afternoon. Rossiya, the state television network, showed a camouflaged soldier racing a young girl, dressed in a light lavender dress, to safety.

With the school in their hands and evidently trip-wired with explosives, the guerrillas released one hostage with a list of demands, officials told official news agencies. Later the guerrillas freed 15 more hostages and Russian news agencies said 50 children escaped during a lull in the fighting.

A man who answered the telephone at the school and identified himself as "the press secretary" of the fighters said they wanted talks with the leaders of North Ossetia and neighboring Ingushetia, as well as with a pediatrician who took part in negotiations with insurgents who seized a Moscow theater in October 2002.

"Wipe your sniffles," the man said, speaking in Russian with a distinct Chechen accent, when asked what they wanted to discuss with the officials, and then hung up.

Updates Later.

Hat tip: Jeff Quinton. I will be in class all morning, Jeff's site will be a good resource to use for more immediate updates.